Wind companies are always trying to make their next turbine spin more efficiently and generate more power than the last, just as car companies are looking for better fuel efficiency and engine power. Advances usually come in small jumps in both cases, with a single percentage improvement cause for celebration.
So how hard should we celebrate this? Well, according to the site
ClimateProgress at ThinkProgress.org, new innovations in wind turbine and turbine network designs have resulted in much, much larger than 1% improvements in efficiency of wind generation technology, "20 and 24 percent more power than the previous best turbine in its class".
The economics of the Green Energy business are driving technological innovation that can only accelerate the growing shift to alternatives to nuclear and fossil fuels for our energy needs. Massive competition between the international industrial behemoths that manufacture most utility scale wind turbines is resulting in dramatic improvements in the technical capacities of the equipment. At the same time, in a different end of the wind power market, competition among smaller scale manufacturers is providing innovation and improvements for home and businesses investing in distributed wind power.
Follow me out into the tall grass for a look at recent innovations in wind power at both the utility scale and for the home/farm/business/off grid user.
At the utility end of the wind power picture is a new product mix from GE Wind Energy that promises remarkable improvements in wind farm performance:
GE’s Brilliant 1.6-100 and 1.7-100 wind turbines are different from previous efforts because they use a short-term, grid-scale battery storage system paired with an “industrial internet” — a sophisticated system that is able to predict when power will be needed and when the wind will be blowing. It’s also bigger. All of this increases efficiency and capacity factor, or how much energy a turbine actually can produce.
This is a big deal for grid operators and wind energy producers.
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When the wind blows near one of GE’s Brilliant turbines, the “industrial internet” has already done a lot of work to let the power producers and the grid operators know when that energy can be expected. It is able to micromanage the most efficient way to position the turbines for optimal rotation. Still, turbines will produce energy at times that the grid is unable to use it. The battery system attached to the turbine allows it to feed excess electricity into the batteries, converting it to electrochemical energy that the grid can use upon request, with nearly immediate turnaround time.
GE has
sold a new wind farm of its Brilliant turbines to a utility in Australia with the capacity to supply a community of 40,000, providing design, manufacturing, installation and 20 years of maintenance of the 67 turbine wind farm for $350M.
In the distributed wind energy end of the wind turbine business, Urban Green Energy, already a leader in quiet vertical wind turbine technology for street and parking lot lighting, has a newproduct:
Built off of the strong platform of UGE’s renewable energy solutions, which have made UGE into the distributed wind leader, VisionAIR takes distributed renewable energy to the next level. “VisionAIR is already redefining what distributed wind means,” said Ty McKnight, UGE’s AVP of Research and Development. “The efficiency and reliability of this model was achieved while retaining UGE’s stunning visual design and quiet operation, a feat that is completely unmatched.”
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The vertical axis turbine integrates with UGE’s SeamlessGrid™ power management system which can easily incorporate solar panels for hybrid installations. SeamlessGrid™ includes advanced remote monitoring and control through UGE’s ViewUGE™ platform as well as additional safety features that redefine safety and long-term reliability for distributed energy systems.
Wind power is here to stay as a growing piece of the energy pie chart. Even faster would be better, but
wind is already kicking nuclear power's ass, so it is all good and seems to be accelerating.