130m long blade by GE- fabric over frame- 20 MWe , 80 stories tall

[davefitz]

latest news from GE- to increase blades to a 130m max, they propose a space frame covered with a geo-fabic, simialr to old airplanes circa 1915. A 260 m rotor diameter might generate 20 MWe, by my guess. One good hail storm, though , and you're back to square one. At least the birds will bounce off.

 

[BigInch]

Is there a generator that big? I wasn't aware of any larger than 5 MW, at least a couple of years ago. A 7.5 was the largest that anybody was talking about at the time, but they still didn't make one that I know of. A 20 MW sitting 270 meters high? Heavy!

"People will work for you with blood and sweat and tears if they work for what they believe in......" - Simon Sinek

 

[berkshire]

This showed up in the GIZMAG magazine.
They claim to have developed a better fabric for covering.
Most of the fabrics used, even today for covering aircraft have poor UV qualities, and require protective paints to prolong their life.
B.E.




The good engineer does not need to memorize every formula; he just needs to know where he can find them when he needs them. Old professor

 

[magoo2]

They just got DOE funding for this concept.

 

[BigInch]

That's great. Then in effect they are just building a big pinwheel until they can design a generator that large and that weighs so little they could still mount it that high up. As far as I know, nobody's even got one on the dwg board yet and they're kinda' hitting a stone wall at 7.5 MW with current wind generator technology anyway.

"People will work for you with blood and sweat and tears if they work for what they believe in......" - Simon Sinek

 

[msquared48]

I still remember getting high on the Dope paint we used as kids on the silkspan for the Balsa wood models we used to fly. Frankly, I'm still surprised I have retained mdmories of this.

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering

http://mmcengineering.tripod.com

 

[IRstuff]

" retained mdmories of this"

But, apparently, not the spelling of the words ;-)

TTFN
faq731-376

 

[msquared48]

I type faster than I thimk.

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering

http://mmcengineering.tripod.com

 

[BigInch]

Maybe he's remembering the smell of that paint a little too much.

"People will work for you with blood and sweat and tears if they work for what they believe in......" - Simon Sinek

 

[berkshire]

The thinner in that dope was ethyl acetate and toluene. Which smelled good, and tore up your liver and your brain, brain, brain.
It is still used today.
B.E.

The good engineer does not need to memorize every formula; he just needs to know where he can find them when he needs them. Old professor

 

[davefitz]

The 20 MWe generator problem can be adddresed if one proposes the use of the Siemens superconducting technology- roughly 100 times the power density of copper cored generators

 

[BigInch]

I'll wait awhile then.

"People will work for you with blood and sweat and tears if they work for what they believe in......" - Simon Sinek

 

[ccfowler]

May we reasonably presume that some of the DOE funding will be for the development of weightless cryogenic equipment to permit the deployment of superconducting generators in the clouds? Surely that technology must be nearing commercial practicality, too. I suppose that for advertising and funding purposes, the power and energy requirements of the cryogenic system would not be deducted from the published ratings of these giant wind turbines. It is always most effective to only announce the niftiest numbers while keeping very quiet about any nasty or troublesome parasitic burdens or costs.

Valuable advice from a professor many years ago: First, design for graceful failure. Everything we build will eventually fail, so we must strive to avoid injuries or secondary damage when that failure occurs. Only then can practicality and economics be properly considered.

 

[RossABQ]

I'd have to believe they will use shafts and gears to drive a generator on the ground.

Driving around the country last summer, I have to say the wind farms are the ugliest thing we've done in a long time.

 

[BigInch]

130 meter long shaft. There's a reason they don't put ship engines in the bow. I think that's it.

Independent events are seldomly independent.

 

[StoneCold]

Why would you not use a hydraulic motor to transfer the energy to the ground level?

 

[MikeHalloran]

Hydrostatic transmissions work fairly well when the pump and the hydraulic motor are in close enough proximity to be in the same housing. Putting them 130m apart requires 260m of tubing, which adds some friction loss, which gets worse with falling temperature.

Allowing the wind turbine to swivel nominally requires addition of a dual channel rotary hydraulic coupling, or a sturdy right angle gearbox.

I said the coupling is 'nominally' required, and it is if one requires unlimited yaw rotation. ... but I heard of a smaller wind turbine that was allowed to swivel on its own, and never yawed much more than one full rotation. The electric cables just dangled down the interior of the tower. The original mercury slipring was removed after the mercury froze.

Doing the same thing with two hydraulic tubes seems possible, but would require hydraulic fittings that don't leak when the tube is tweaked a little. That might require a little development money...




Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[davefitz]

It looks like GE is also now considering superconducting technology to address the generator atop this monster.

"Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition! "

 

[ornerynorsk]

We've got ~3000 of these things in SW Minnesota, and they seriously mess with your head when you're driving through the area. Have to really concentrate to keep your eyes on the road and focused on the driving. I can't imagine them being nearly twice as large. You'd have that many more miles to gaze at them on the horizon.

It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong, than to be always right by having no ideas at all.

 

[davefitz]

latest report is Samsung is testing a 7 MWe offshore wind turbine in the UK ; the nacelle is 9 m tall x 18 m long, generator weight not listed

"Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition! "