New Turbines at EWEA Biannual Offshore Wind Conference & Exhibition

For three days at the end of last month in Frankfurt, international exhibitors displayed their new offshore turbines and wind-related products, such as a huge HVAC submarine cable and some offshore foundation developments to support the turbines. Here’s a selection of what was presented that we will expect to see in 2014 and beyond:

Samsung showed off their 7MW S7.0-171 offshore turbine. A prototype has been installed in the UK- and it boasts a 25-year operating life and the longest blades yet have seen; a whopping 83.5 metres in length. It has a compact medium-speed drivetrain made up of a two-stage planetary gearbox designed and built by the UK firm David Brown. The gearbox has been integrated inside the large-diameter hollow main shaft, which in turn is supported by two rotor bearings. According to a Samsung spokesperson, the turbine can achieve a 73 percent capacity factor at high-wind sites. The S7.0-171 under such conditions generates at 63 percent of the time measured over the year over 80 percent of its rated power. Certification is expected next year.

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Samsung’s new 7MW turbine being erected for testing in Fife, Scotland

Germany’s REpower introduced the long-anticipated successor to its 6.15-MW 6M (2009) turbine. The new offshore model builds on the flagship  6M turbine(now renamed 6.2M126) and comes with the same power rating.  So what’s new about this development of the original?  It switches to a load-optimized cast main chassis and an enlarged 152-metre rotor diameter. This offers 46 percent more rotor swept area and, according REpower, a 20 percent higher yield at 9.5 percent average wind speed sites. It also has new slimmer blades- thanks to REpower in-house product development. The turbine is called 6.2M152.

Locally based in Frankfurt, Aerodyn introduced an innovative two-bladed 8-MW SCD 8.0 down-wind offshore turbine with 168-metre rotor diameter. (SCD stands for Super Compact Drive.) One special product feature of the SCD 8.0 is a helicopter-landing platform integrated in the nacelle upper part. Isn’t that dangerous?  No actual landings are only permissible after locking the rotors in a horizontal 180-degree position. Two-bladed turbines have not been a feature of the offshore wind industry but that may be changing because they are more easily stored on the deck of boats and can be lifted into position more easily than the traditional three-bladed turbines.

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Thirdly, Siemens Energy showed off its new 4-MW and 6-MW offshore turbines in Frankfurt, including a new 4-MW SWT-4.0-120 model version with 120-metre rotor diameter. The company said that it was its intention to reduce the lifecycle-based cost of energy (CoE, which equals turbine cost/kWh/20-25y) for both the 6-MW direct-drive and 4-MW geared turbine models by up to 40 percent compared to today’s levels. That’s a considerable uprating if it can be achieved.

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