JUL 27

Although the technology seems settled, new wind power designs are still being developed, especially as engineers try to extend the generating capacity of turbines. The Aerogenerator X is a new 10 MW wind turbine designed for off-shore use combining the best of horizontal axis and vertical axis designs. The engineering firm Arup and architects Grimshaw developed the design (based on an earlier Grimshaw design from a couple years ago) on behalf of the British company Wind Power Limited.

The familiar, three-bladed, horizontal axis turbine is a well established design, but increased stresses as the size of these turbines increases makes it difficult to enlarge them further. Because of the square-cube law, larger wind turbines produce exponentially more power, so there is an incentive to build larger and larger turbines. This led to the innovative design, inspired by the sycamore leaf.

Aerogenerator X has a very large swept area, like a horizontal axis turbine. The span of the turbine is 275 meters (over 900 feet). But the Aerogenerator X is also only half the height of an equivalent horizontal axis turbine. And like a vertical axis turbine, the generator and equipment are located at the base. Stresses on the blades are reduced in this configuration, making it easier to design and build something of this size. This also makes maintenance much easier, especially for an offshore turbine.

Project partners also include Rolls-Royce, Shell, BP, EDF, EON, Caterpillar, and the UK government. The first full-scale versions of this turbine are expected to be completed by 2013 or 2014.

Hat tip to @MelStarrs and BAKOKO!

Comments (3)

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So little power?
written by Matt, July 27, 2010

With a span of 900ft it only gets 10MW? In 2006 they said a couple of years to they had one up and running. I wonder if 2014, is when the next version drawing comes out. Instead of a full scale working version in 2013/2014.

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square-cubes
written by Andrew Hurley, July 27, 2010

Actually the square-cube law isn't all that helpful to bigger turbines.

The energy capture is directly proportional to the swept area of the rotor (ie double the blade length get 4x area and 4x energy) whereas the mass of components tends to increase with the cube.

Maybe these guys have found a way to break the relationship but I don't see how the square-cube will be helping.

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written by Rain Byars, August 24, 2010

In response to Matt's question, the Area which matters is the swept area perpendicular to the wind direction. So in this case (900 ft) it would not be related to PI*450^2, but to 900*H where H is the vertical distance from tip to tip of the airfoil which will be much smaller. A horizontal axis turbine with the same rotor diameter could theoretically have 3 to 4 times higher power output.

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