A fresh-water wind farm is taking shape at Lake Erie and when completed will provide 20 megawatts and get on to about one gigawatt power by 2020. Huge individual turbines 300 feet tall, to be built by GE will be erected off Ohio, Cleveland. Better designs: These are special gearless super-efficient turbines, with three 176-foot long blades, which run with the help of a giant ring of magnets. The blades are longer due to strategically placed carbon fibre, and lighter too. Many moving parts like gearbox, coils and starter brushes are eliminated with resultant reduced maintenance. The giant magnetic ring array helps the turbine generate power even at very low speed.
A fresh-water wind farm is taking shape at Lake
Erie and when completed will provide 20 megawatts and get on to
about one gigawatt power by 2020. Huge individual turbines 300 feet tall, to be
built by GE will be erected off Ohio, Cleveland. Better
designs: These are special gearless super-efficient turbines, with three
176-foot long blades, which run with the help of a giant ring of magnets. The
blades are longer due to strategically placed carbon fibre, and lighter too. Many
moving parts like gearbox, coils and starter brushes are eliminated with
resultant reduced maintenance. The giant magnetic ring array helps the turbine
generate power even at very low speed.
Rejuvenating wind energy industry:
As land-based turbines are facing a lack of interest and demand, wind energy
industry is facing a setback. This new-design turbines to tap the energy from
off-shore wind can bring about a positive tilt to the industry. It has been
estimated that off-shore wind potential from Great Lakes
area only is 321,936 megawatts which is about 10 times the energy from all
sources put together.
Farm partners:
This wind farm project is resulting from a partnership between Lake Erie Energy
Development Corporation (LEEDCo) of Northern Ohio and General Electric Co.
(NYSE:GE). Costing US $100 million, this project will light up 16,000 homes.
General Electric (GE) has been asked to supply the 5 turbines for this project.
This project can be the harbinger of good times of GE along with another $300
million Saudi contract in the times of overall financial setback.
Perfect balance:
As per the report of National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) on offshore
wind, an interesting factor came to surface. Wind blows strongest at midnight
and with least force at midday and solar power is strongest at noon and almost
nil at midnight. So with wind-power at night and solar power at day, we can
have continuous generation of clean, renewable energy.
