Gamesa Launches New Wind Turbine For Less Windy Regions
With an eye on new and developing markets, Spanish wind turbine manufacturer has expanded its basket of offerings by revealing a wind turbine specifically designed for sites with low wind speeds.
Gamesa introduced the 2.5 MW turbine at the China Wind Power 2015 trade fair, and with a rotor diameter of 126 meters, the turbine will be available with hub heights of 84, 102, and 129 meters.
“Thanks to its extremely low power density, an outstanding capacity factor, and a lower cost of energy, this turbine will boost energy production with respect to the G114-2.0 MW by up to 25%,” the company stated in a press release.
This new turbine gives Gamesa a golden opportunity to increase its share further in developing markets. India, for example, has given preference to wind energy more than any other renewable energy technology, and as a result, several major high wind density sites in the country have also been snapped up.
These trends have been recognised by the regulators as well, who have introduced new and higher tariffs for projects located at such sites. The Indian electricity regulators, for their tariff determinations, assume highest PLF of 32% and the lowest PLF of 20%.
Gamesa’s new turbine could be a huge hit in the Indian market, with the government setting a target to have 60 GW installed wind energy capacity by 2022. Gamesa is already a leader in the Indian market, but with signs of revival for Suzlon Energy, the Spanish turbine marker will require all possible tools to compete.
In India Gamesa was the leading OEM in 2013 as well as 2014, and acquired significant market share over one-time leader Suzlon Energy. Gamesa is believed to have supplied wind turbines for 600 to 700 MW of wind power capacity last year in India. This year, the company aims to supply turbines equivalent to 1 GW of wind power capacity. Gamesa has announced plans to supply 7.5 GW of wind energy turbines in India over the next 5-7 years.
Gamesa recently secured contracts in new wind energy markets like Turkey, Kuwait, and Cyprus.
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The 129m version should aid in wind expansion particularly. It increases the range of areas suitable for operation and increases the amount of time wind energy is available.
At a specific area loading of 200 watts/m^2, this turbine is going to run at a very high capacity factor compared to the typical turbine with a specific loading 50% higher. I’d like to know what the blade cord is compared to other turbine blades of the same length.
(It would be nice if this site had the practice of placing in every article a sidebar that contained as much technical and geeky info as possible, the way aviation and car mags do. That way the numbers would have to be crunched only once and we readers wouldn’t have to do it individually.
Manufacturer:
Model:
Rated capacity:
Hub heights:
Rotor diameter:
Blade length:
Blade cord:
Swept area:
Specific area loading:
Rated wind speed:
Cut in speed:
Cut out speed:
Magnet type:
Etc . . .)
We redneck nerds — rednerds — find such info interesting.
Something that’s been bugging me is the fact that though 6 – 8 MW turbines are now available, I rarely hear about them being installed. All I hear about is the 2 – 3 MW units. I think I remember those big ‘uns being intended for offshore use where the big wind is and the specific loading can be much higher.
Of course what’s going through my mind is the end goal and how many turbines it will take to get there. If our goal here in America is 70% – 80% of our future 600 GW demand, that’s 420 – 480 constant GW of juice. At a capacity factor of 50%, we’d need 840 – 960 installed name plate GW. If the average turbine is 5MW rather than the current 2 or 3, then we’d need between 168,000 and 192,000 turbines.
This is starting to look kinda overwhelming . . . like it’s easy to see right now that we need a coupla large jumps in turbine size and rating.
The turbine in this article is exactly what the American South needs: a high hub and very low area loading. The resulting characteristics of good low-wind performance and fairly constant power availability is one of the factors that will win over a lot of previous naysayers. Especially in a few years when the cost per KWh drops another coupla cents.
Ya gotta hand it to India — they are kicking posterior when it comes to smart power planning . . . at least that’s the way it looks from my distant seating arrangement.
There are problems moving the very large turbines and blades around on land. It’s easier to install the >3MW turbines at sea. One of the things under development is sectional blades which can be shipped on standard length trucks and pieced together at the site.
Japan just floated a 7 MW and hooked it up. Right off Fukushima.
It’s going to be interesting to watch wind get established in the Southeast after so many years of people thinking it wouldn’t work there.
Don’t forget to add the other renewables into your projections. I’m guessing that wind will end up about 40% of our mix.
If one assumes we’ll be OK if we get to 0% fossil fuels by 2050 that means that we’ve got to replace 2% per year. We’ve had multiple years when we replaced 0.6% FF with wind. Something like doubling our good wind years and really increasing our solar installations would get us there.
Electricity for EVs would be extra.