growwny.org/whats-new/33885-even-more-new-and-improved
Even More New and Improved…
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by Dave Bradley on December 25, 2013
Terms:Dark Green, Energy & Climate, Environment & Region, Technology
This post was originally published on the WAG Blog on Wednesday, December 18, 2013.
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Two onshore wind turbines can be used as examples of this phenomenon. These are the latest offerings from Vestas (V110) as well as the Nordex (N-131) - which involve 53 meter (174 feet) and 64 meter (210 feet) long blades, respectively.
The V110 is an extension of the V100 x 1.8 MW unit that recently has proven to be a big seller in the US and Canada. The new unit is rated at 2 MW, and it has a 4.75 m^2/kw of capacity power ratio versus a 4.36 m^2/kw ratio for the smaller V100. This larger turbine pushes the ability to tap lower wind speed even further, and it comes with an 80 or 95 meter tower in the US or a 95 and 125 meter tower in Europe. At a fairly fast hub height wind speed of 7,5 m/s it should be able to produce an average of 1 MW (almost 9000 MW-hr/yr, a bit over 50% of its rating), and be able to extract 7000 MW-hr/yr (800 kw, or 40% net output) at average winds of 6 m/s. Essentially, this opens up almost ALL of NY State to reasonable priced wind power (except for wind shadowed areas, such as on the east side of mountains/steep hills), especially at 95 meter hub heights. Coming soon to the USA (Texas, initially) in 2014.
Nordex recently announced its N131 x 3 MW turbine for low wind speed areas, and this is a scale-up of their recently commercialized N117 x 2.4 MW unit (lots of them in Michigan). It has a 131 rotor diameter, and a power ratio of close to 4.5 m^2/kw. This one comes with either a 99 meter or 114 meter tall steel tower though higher heights with hybrids may soon be available (120 and 141 meter ones are made for some Nordex (N117 x 3 MW units). The tip of the rotor blade will reach to almost 180 meters (close to 590 feet), where it can be far above the effects of surface turbulence..........................