Consultant Dan
01 September 2011
Building bigger wind turbines: DoE, GE, Case Western Reserve University
Two exciting announcements in wind turbine technology show why Victoria and NSW are so ill-advised to be shunning wind power.
General Electric is starting work with the US Department of Energy to design a wind turbine generator for a capacity range of 10-15MW. (I have written previously about the Ecomagination initiative of GE Chairman Jeffrey Immelt.)
I recently had an MRI scan so I am particularly interested to read that the researchers will be drawing on experience using superconducting magnets for MRI systems. The objective of the project is to double the torque density of the generator, by using cryogenically cooled superconducting magnets and eliminating the need for a gearbox.
If it works, this new turbine generator will be lighter and more powerful than current technologies.
In the other announcement, researchers from Case Western Reserve University have made the first carbon nanotube reinforced polyurethane blades for a wind turbine.
The objective of this project is to make blades bigger and lighter than the current generation of metal blades.
There researchers have created an excellent chart that illustrates how quickly turbine power is increasing over time, as a result of increased blade lengths.
While the UN dithers on a binding climate change treaty, technological innovation is bringing the price of wind and solar down so quickly, that they will deliver electricity cheaper than coal does.
Smart venture capital investors are saying that wind is about to experience the same dramatic cost reductions which have seen PV prices plummet by around one third in 2010.
It is a shame that the Victorian and NSW Governments are failing to embrace innovation and the cost reductions it will deliver to electricity consumers.
My view is that climate denialism has addled the brains of some groups. It has taught them to think that science and technology are just made up or even worse, a conspiracy of global proportions.
To be specific, the Landscape Guardians, the Institute of Public Affairs and other extreme groupings with links to the Liberal Party are shifting their obstructionist campaigning from science to technology. In the past they denied climate science, now they are denying energy technology.
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Wind power generation is bound to be the INN thing if we consider economy as well as eco – friendliness .Its amazing however how authorities would be slow to embrace such researched for technologies.