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Delivering on the promise of savings, however, is harder than it sounds. Nordic's design, Carbone says, "is pretty simple in function. It's a just a hinge that's perpendicular to the rotor. But perfecting that simplicity took a lot of time and effort."
Larry Miles has spent the last decade trying to develop a flexible two-bladed wind turbine with individually hinged blades. Miles's Wind Turbine Company, based in Bellevue, WA, was preparing to push a 500-kilowatt prototype of its hinged-blade turbine to 750 kilowatts when a control-system error allowed one blade to swing too far and strike the tower. The resulting damage ultimately caused the DOE to withdraw support for the firm's research program.
Carbone says that such setbacks have not tarnished Nordic because its teetered design is already well proven. Since the mid-1970s, the Swedish government has poured close to $75 million into Nordic's Swedish predecessor, producing a string of prototypes. Four of the five one-megawatt turbines Nordic has installed since 1995 are still running, demonstrating an average mechanical reliability of 98 percent. "We can catapult off that experience and use today's control [systems] and materials to make an even better product," says Carbone.
Nordic's plan is to first validate its design by selling turbines to community-scale wind-energy developments with up to 20 turbines--projects that are too small to support a dedicated maintenance staff and therefore need reliability. Nordic says it already has orders for 19 turbines for small installations at a military base in Arizona, a housing development in Minneapolis, and a power project in Uruguay. The primary use of the DOE loan guarantee will be expansion of the company's assembly plant in Pocatello, ID.
Carbone says Nordic will ramp up carefully to assure reliability and customer satisfaction before engineering its next step: a 2.5- to 3-megawatt turbine to compete for use by large, utility-scale wind farms. "In 2012 we will prototype a 2.5 to 3-megawatt machine, which will take us to a $1 billion company in roughly seven years from now," promises Carbone.
Miles estimates that the savings from Nordic's design might be closer to 10 percent. But Miles says that could still make an important difference: "If their machine works reliably, they're going to have a definite cost advantage over a three-blade machine."
A continuously variable transmission could lead to cheaper wind power--if it is rugged enough.
The wind turbine design that may warrant such funding is the high efficiency, low profile design that was in development by TMA Global Wind Turbine Systems / TMA Inc. This promised greater application worldwide and superior performance than two or three blade horizontal-axis wind turbines! Please tell me when we can purchase them?
... and why is there no collaboration with http://whalepower.com or others?. It seems to me all these evolutionary steps are never combined to produce the ultimate system where everybody wins.
good point about combining. it seems that is the case for any number of novel technologies. there should be some office to promote collaboration in engineering to market complementary new energy technologies.
The article says the turbine puts out 1000 megawatts. I for one would love to see a gigawatt turbine. :D
The actual figure is 1000 kW, one megawatt.
Nordic Windpower owns the Technology
Hello all - I just wanted to clarify a few points that were made in the commentary - Nordic Windpower owns the technology, they acquired it in 2007 from the Norwegian/Swedish entity that owned it. They have invested heavily in updating the technology, materials and controls. They are making the "Volvo of Wind Turbines" even safer and more reliable then before for community and distributed wind applications.
Re: Nordic Windpower owns the Technology
I was happy to see that someone was paying attention, by being knowledeable in the history---thank you
Response to Grinch01 - New is not always better...this is better
The technology is proven over many years of operations in the harsh climates of Sweden, and virtually maintenance free, because of the patented teeter-hub that enables a flexible, lighter, simpler two-bladed design that few have been able to achieve. The flexible technology protects the drive train and gear box, and dissipates turbulent winds harmlessly, increasing reliability and lowering maintenance. According to the DOE release, Nordic will be creating at least 75 jobs right here in the USA within the next year.
The problem with all these down wind turbines is tower "pop" (BOOM!) noise.
I know, I owned a Carter 350 and it produced a lot of power and a lot of noise. The tower pop could be clearly heard down wind 4 miles away and on a bad day 6 miles away.
One time this produced a resonance of the air in our house and oh sh1t was it sickening till I could get on line and shut it down!
In the end somebody "felled it", due I'm told to the noise. By that time I had sold it back to the UK company.
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Guest (Grinch01)
Two bladed tech is not new.
"Swedish Technology" - This seems crazy? Carter Wind Energy (CWE) - has developed one of the most material efficient and simple two bladed downwind teetering turbine systems and has been around for decades. Why DOE would want to guarantee loans (using taxpayer money) for another imported tech - that looks like an upwind two-bladed design with the same problems of the Danish three bladed designs and the same massive hub - leaves me almost speechless.
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Gurthang
52 Comments
Re: Two bladed tech is not new.
My guess looking at both websites is that Nordic already has 1+ MW turbines of this design and Carter does not. I suspect there is more to it than that and I have no doubt Carter is trying to get a piece of that tax payer pie as well. As to the tech not being from the US.. who cares.. Really what is the problem with a US company licensing some tech from Europe and making a good product. It is a US company making the product here why shouldn't they. Are you going to suggest we should boycot all vehicles with diesel engines because it was not invented here?
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