New technology blows away existing generators
Release date: 18 Apr 2005
Wind Power Ltd of Suffolk, a Camrow client who won one of the last ever DTI SMART Awards, will next month unveil the results of their project at the Clean Energy Show in London.
On show will be the Feasibility unit that demonstrates technology that literally blows away the existing technology used for large-scale wind farms.
The technology, vertical axis, as opposed to the current horizontal axis, has been specifically chosen to take advantage of offshore wind patterns where there is 'clean' wind just above wave height. This avoids the need to put the generator on top of a high expensive mast as is needed with the current technology.
'Current offshore wind farms use technology that was designed for operation on land,' said Camrow Director, Richard Moseley who has been working with Wind Farm Ltd for over four years.
'This makes it more expensive offshore than onshore, hence the dash by the generating companies to cover the countryside with propellers. The Aerogenerator will be a large V with the generator at the bottom hence at sea level.
'This means it can be on a floating platform, avoiding the high costs of the civil engineering required to build large towers offshore. Even more important is that the capacity is not restricted in the same way, indeed Wind Power Ltd will be unveiling designs for a 8MW unit at the Clean Energy Show, twice the capacity of the largest horizontal axis currently operating.
'The combination of floating base, low level generator, and increased generating capacity, means that offshore wind generated electricity can be cheaper than that current generated onshore', he added.
'This is truly disruptive technology, made even more so by it needing a change in the psyche of the industry which believes horizontal axis died when a previous test machine fell apart in Camarthen Bay 14 years ago. However that, like the current technology, was a land-based design.
'Technology has moved on in both areas, the limitations in capacity of horizontal axis machines are now known, whilst there is a much better understanding of materials of construction and offshore wind patterns'.
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Richard Moseley
Camrow Ltd
Phone 01223 813234
Fax 01223 813234
