Objective
Objectives:
The EXPLOREWIND project will investigate the efficiency, cost reduction and environmental issues found in new wind turbine concepts for non-grid-connected power systems, by developing and testing small and medium-sized wind mills with the following criteria:
- wind turbines in the 1 to 50 kW capacity range, with a targeted production and installation cost of less than 8000 for a 5 kW wind mill, or 1 kW at a total cost of 4500 , compared to a conventional 5 kW wind mill at approx. 11000 , including transport and mounting;
- improving performance of the whole system by new aerodynamic designs and materials, with the aim of increasing the capacity factor of the mill from the conventional 40 to 50 % by up to 15 %.
Description of the work:
1. Identification of the requirements - all the requirements from the economical and operational point of view will be defined.
2. Inner turbine development - research and preliminary tests on new materials to be employed in inner and outer turbine will be performed by SINTEF; GGG, a manufacturer of composite components, will support the research and build the prototype.
3. Outer turbine development - in blade design new materials and moulding technologies will be employed, although using conventional shapes, thereby being less expensive to manufacture and lighter in weight. The design will, however, seek to reduce the sound from the wing rotation applying available results on noise reduction.
4. Power transmission - ad hoc designed mast and shaft will be developed by SINTEF, allowing the turbine to turn 360 degrees around the shaft, following the wind direction. The turbine will hang behind the mast, thereby making it a down-wind turbine.
5. Mast design, employing composite materials - the ground-based equipment can be heavier, more easily maintenance, have less energy transportation loss and be of a lighter wind turbine design. Another requirement of the equipment is the ability to operate at variable speed in order to avoid controlling of the wind turbine speed.
6. Final testing - the prototype will be built at Contamina (Spain) an experimental village established by local authorities in co-operation with IBE, with the aim of applying renewable energies and innovative concepts. The energy test centre in Contamina has long experience in renewable energy sources in general, and wind mills in particular, and provides technical service, test equipment and test sites for windmill testing. Milestones, expected results and exploitation :Inner turbine design and simulation, prototype of the turbine, prototype of the windmill, assessment of test results and economic evaluation.
Fields of science
Not validated
Not validated
Call for proposal
Data not availableFunding Scheme
CRS - Cooperative research contractsCoordinator
2110 SLAASTAD
Norway