Siemens launches new 4-megawatt offshore wind turbine
Vienna, Austria - Siemens Energy launched its new offshore wind turbine - the SWT 4.0-130 at the annual conference of the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) in Vienna.
Siemens new SWT 4.0-130 wind turbine utilizes all of the key technologies of the proven 3.6-MW family. The nacelle and tower are advanced variants of the 3.6-MW wind turbine design. The rotor blades are manufactured using Siemens' proven IntegralBlade process, cast in a single piece without use of adhesive bonding. The new B63 rotor blade, measuring 63 meters in length, is the longest and technologically most advanced blade in the 4-megawatt class. The B63 sweeps an area equivalent almost to the size of two football fields. Thanks to optimized coupling of blade bending and twisting, these aeroelastic blades react more flexibly to high wind loads, absorbing forces similarly to the cushioning effect of shock absorbers on cars. This technology allows use of longer rotor blades, which boosts wind power capture and thus increases unit performance. "The advancements designed into the SWT 4.0-130 increase energy capture by up to 15 percent over our best-selling SWT 3.6-120 type", says Henrik Stiesdal, Chief Technology Officer at Siemens' Energy Sector's Wind Power Division.
Siemens' new platform design concept constitutes a further step in the industrialization of the wind power sector. Following the model of the automotive industry, all wind turbines are bundled under the umbrella of a product platform. Each unit consists of five or six modules which are used within a single platform for various different turbines. "We can reduce production and logistics costs by standardizing and modularizing components within our product platforms. This is a major step towards achieving our goal of making wind power independent from subsidizing", notes Stiesdal. In the future, each of the wind turbines offered by Siemens will belong to one of the platforms Siemens G2, Siemens G4, Siemens D3 or Siemens D6. The name of each platform is dictated by a combination of the applied drive technology and the performance class of the wind turbines. Platforms based on geared technology are denoted by the letter "G" (for "geared drive"), while product platforms featuring gearless technology are identified by the prefix "D" (for "direct drive"). With its 4-MW output, the SWT 4.0-130 wind turbine joins the well-known 3.6-MW turbines in the Siemens G4 platform.
Source: IWR Online, Feb 02 2013