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New Siemens Research Turbine Commissioned at NREL

October 20, 2009 | 5 Comments

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Colorado, United States [RenewableEnergyWorld.com] The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Siemens Energy Inc. have commissioned a new 2.3-megawatt (MW) Siemens wind turbine at NREL's National Wind Technology Center. The turbine is the centerpiece of a multi-year project to study the performance and aerodynamics of a new class of large, land-based machines – in what will be the biggest government-industry research partnership for wind power generation ever undertaken in the U.S.

This turbine project is part of a coordinated wind research program supported by the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.

“Today begins a new era of research at NREL’s National Wind Technology Center,” said NREL Director Dan Arvizu. “With our partners at Siemens Energy, we will embark on a comprehensive R&D program that will pave the way for the even more advanced wind turbines of the future.”

Under their Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA), Siemens and NREL will test basic turbine characteristics and verify new performance enhancing features of the pilot turbine over a minimum of three years – and potentially longer. Testing will include a full range of real-world operating conditions, including severe weather.

“At Siemens, innovation is one of our core values. That’s why we are especially pleased to join forces with our nation’s leading wind research facility,” said Barry Nicholls, senior vice president of Siemens Energy, Inc. “This important new research program will help us further enhance the performance of our turbines and lower the cost of clean, wind-generated power, which in turn will help diversify the overall mix of power generation sources in the U.S.”

Under the initial phase of the $14 million research program, Siemens will contribute US $9 million, NREL $5 million. Culminating today’s event, Arvizu and Nicholls joined Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter in flipping a switch that symbolically commissioned the giant machine, fitted with a 331-foot-diameter rotor, mounted atop a 262-foot tower. Gov. Ritter addressed the assembled gathering of community and business leaders, while the Golden High School Marching Band provided a celebratory note.

The Siemens 2.3 MW turbine is among the largest land-based turbines deployed in the United States and is the largest at the NWTC site. Planned testing includes structural and performance testing; modal, acoustics and power quality testing; as well as aerodynamic testing and turbine performance enhancements. NREL researchers also are interested in the foundations required beneath the ground to support larger wind turbines.

NREL and Renewable Energy Systems Americas (RES) have entered into a separate but coordinated agreement to study the design and performance of turbine foundations, with goals of increasing the reliability of non-turbine components and reducing turbine installation costs.

A new meteorological tower to the west of the Siemens turbine will feature more than 60 instruments to collect the most advanced data available on wind, temperature, dew point, precipitation and other weather features that can influence the performance and lifespan of a wind turbine.

The new turbine and other new projects underway at the NWTC also allow NREL to take a significant step forward in generating its own clean electricity to accomplish the laboratory’s aggressive sustainability goals – including the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions while at the same time meeting the energy needs of NREL’s expanding campus.

DOE and Xcel Energy are negotiating an agreement for surplus energy to be exported and sold to the local utility grid. Installation of the pilot turbine at the National Wind Technology Center follows Siemens’ decision to locate its own wind power research and development center in nearby Boulder. That office is expected to grow to 40 engineers and other staff by 2013.

This turbine project is part of a coordinated wind research program supported by the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.

Wind Power

5 Reader Comments

Comment
1 of 5

IntegEner-W

October 21, 2009

It is worth noting that the DOE has had no megawatt class research turbine that can be called its own until now, something from which data is freely available to, for example, the academic community which could very well descend on this turbine in droves. Contrast that with the many test nuclear reactors scattered around the nation in past years. It's as though wind aerodynamics is all cut and dried, a hand-me-down from aviation, but it isn't. Compound that with the competitive need for keeping data secure, the result being that nothing is known technically about these big turbines outside of a few pioneering companies on the world stage. That's fine. Let's find out about the foundations and maybe a few other things as well.

Tony Chessick
IntegEner-W
Tehachapi, CA

Comment
2 of 5

windcatcher

October 27, 2009

That is not a turbine; it is just another propeller driven windmill. That is not advancement in wind energy technology; it's more of the same technology.
Low Pressure Turbine Dynamics as demonstrated by the Baker Wind Turbine is a major breakthrough in wind energy technology yet NREL refuses to recognize the technology or to test the model.
Low Pressure Turbine Dynamics is free to Siemens or any other manufacturer. I am trying to advance science not put anyone out of business, that is why the technology is available to everyone and no one has ownership.
Siemens could develop high speed eclectic locomotives with wind powered turbine railcars with this technology. If enough forced air turbine railcars were operating on a grid at the same time; they could electrify the entire grid. Now, that would be, a major achievement for Siemens in the development of green energy.

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3 of 5

geoff-steele-67209

November 3, 2009

For Windcatcher: I learned once that the law of "entropy" says you cannot produce more energy from a system than the system consumes. I'm intrigued by the idea that a road locomotive pulling a string of wind turbine freight cars could put more power back into a grid (assuming an all-electric or diesel-electric locomotive of substantial horsepower) and a pantograph wire over the rials to pick up the generated electricity from the cars. Could you expand on your explanation, or provide some website sources for further information on the Baker Wind Turbine, etc. ? Thanks...

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4 of 5

windcatcher

November 7, 2009

For geoff-steele-67209:
In order to withstand the greater stress from high speed air movement, be it forced air or natural air flow, we need a dynamic more advanced than the archaic propeller dynamic. A high speed locomotive traveling from 50 mph. to 150 mph. (plus any additional natural wind that is moving) has very high air energy potential.
At 60 mph. (still atmosphere), for example, with air movement at 810 ft. lb. per sec. has about 1 ½ horse power per square foot energy potential. Test model #3 Baker Wind Turbine demonstrating the Low Pressure Turbine Dynamic has a wind intake that is 6' wide, 6' high and 12' deep. The turbine has a continuous 108 sq. ft. of cupped surface area to catch the wind and because the turbine has flow through and rotates in the same direction the energy force is moving; the turbine has very little wind resistance.
If a solid wall was rated at 100 for wind resistance; the turbine dynamic would be rated at 20. Model 3 would produce an estimated 160 hp at 60 mph. A streamlined railcar with only the turbine dynamic exposed to the wind would have 4 rows of turbines the width of the railcar and produce about 1,200 hp of energy at 60 mph.
A streamlined diesel/electric locomotive train set with two air turbine cars and 5 passenger cars would save substantial diesel fuel costs. The lightweight air turbine car would produce more energy than it would take to pull the car weight plus wind resistance at 60 mph. Figuratively, on the Northeast Corridor between New York and Boston, if enough high speed air turbine cars were in operation, they could conceivably electrify the entire electric grid.
The 6 or the 8 helix Low Pressure Turbine Dynamic is the only dynamic that will work smoothly for high speed air/ electric generation and it's free, compliments of the inventor, in spite of NREL.

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5 of 5

windcatcher

November 27, 2009

for Geoff-Steele-67209 No reply? I had hope for a physics discussion, science discussions are so hard to find these days. I must add that a high speed train traveling at 150 mph. has other special forces to consider as well, one is centrifugal force in the turns.
The revolving air turbines act as a gyroscope so that in the turns the low revolving body will create a lateral counter force to the centrifugal force which wants to throw the mass off of the tracks in the turns. This added angular momentum lateral counter force enhancement to weight distribution will enable a train to take turns at higher speeds at a lower angle. If course, the faster the train goes the more energy the air turbines produce and the more lateral stability the train has. The new air/electric turbine dynamic and its gyro effect in the turns could possibly enable a high speed train to break the threshold of 310 mph. set by Japan.

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