Windfarm near Veer Savarkar's Village

Recently I made a visit to another wind heaven- Suzlon's Sinnar plant.
All machines are 1.5 MW. There are 52 such machines.

Latest FSS technology has been used in place of fluid couplings in some of the machines. One blade weighs 5.2 T and the Nacelle weighs 67 T. So we need 500 T crane for the work.

Feeling the breez on my hairs. Machine gives full output at 12m/s. Cut in is 3.5 m/s and cut out is 22 m/s.

Tower height is 78.5 m . Rotor is 40 m long. The dia with hub is 82 m. All machines are remotely controlled from Pune.

And the location has historical significance. Freedom Fighter Veer Savarkar's birthplace is nearby.

Visit to ENERCON plant in Daman

It was amazing to see how 2.5 Tonne 23 metre long blade is manufactured in the plant. Made of composite material(resin), blade has three parts separately moulded- Spoiler,Middle and Root. Layers of matts are spread, bonded and heat treated to form these parts.Blade manufacturing is a complex activity.
Strength is achieved by 2 I sections.and continuous stran mesaurement transducers are provided forcondition monitoring during service.It takes 24 hours to make one complete blade, which is thenmounted on sleeve bearings of hub.
Rotor plant is seperateand eually exciting to see.60 pole shoe rotor generates 600V.Control boxes such as relay box, battery box and lubrication box were nicely placed. Generator weight 36 Tonnes.
Kudos to ENERCON for such well maintained plant.

Installed capacity growing, generation not at par !

The total installed capacity worldwide is over 120 GigaWatts now. US, Germany and China , each are adding 5000 MW every year.Europe is still number one followed by US and Asia in terms of total installed capacity.
This huge capacity of 120 GW can produce over 250 Terawatthours(TWh)in a year. Theoritically so.
THe avrage PLF in India is just 15%. Global average PLF is 30 %. Why so? We have incentives for installing,not for generation.

Visit to largest windfarm of Asia

Loacated in the Nandurbar district of Khandesh in Maharashtra, this is the largest windfarm of Asia with an installed capacity of over 650 MW. The machines are of 1.25 MW and 1.5 MW class. Now Machines of 2.1 MW are being installed too. See our snap with the energetic team of Suzlon.Presently struggling with the politically motivated land deal probe by CID and rampant theft in the farm, this place has a great windspeed throughout the year.

How much energy turbines return ?

The data for energy return on energy invested is as follows:-

Coal fired power plant :- 2.5
Nuclear power :- 4.5
Hydroelectric power :- 10.0
Wind power :- 35.0
Natural Gas :- 10.3

To beat Recession,expedite wind projects

Winfarms to ward off recession ? Yes thats what I am trying to say. If a 200 KW Wind Turbine replaces a thermal plant, it saves 150 Tonnes of coal. Coal, which invloves logistics problem and has increasing scarcity value. In addition it will save 3T SOx, 2T NOx and 500T CO2 emmission.
And India still has 25 % peak power shortage. Power which afftects industrial growth, rural electrification and economy in general.

Suzlon Marches ahead despite troubles.

World's 5th largest wind turbine manufacturer is facing hard times. Its two US customers - M/S Deere and M/S Edison have reportedly cancelled some orders and placed them on GE.
In June 2007, Edison placed an order of 2.1 x 300 MW turbines on Suzlon. Half of the order i.e. for 150 turbines has been cancelled because Edison is is repordtedly not satsfied with the 'root cause analysis' of the rotor blades cracks.
Competetors of Suzlon- Vestas, Nordex ets have got about 50 % increase in the order book, a mark yet to be achieved by it.
The problem with Deere supply was reported to be lower plant availability.
By 2012, Suzlon will cross 14000 MW mark in terms of installed capacity.

Indian Wind Turbine Market

With 8500 MW installed capacity India Ranks 4th in the world. Suzlon's market share is 55% in that. Whats is unique about the Indian market? Unlike the Europe where most of the wind power is taken by utilities and is generated by IPPs, here in india, the lion's share ( 75%) of the wind power is used by the private companies as captive power generation.
Power Producers are barely 24% of total!

Poor Generation Problem of Wind Turbines

Why there is poor generation in some of the wind turbines? The reasons could be:-
1. Bad siting.
2. Power Curve related problem ( pitch angle setting and yaw alignment).
3. Equipment Inefficiency.
4.Losses.

To overcome we can
1. Increase the hub hieght.
2.Relocate the wind turbine.
3.Can correct the yaw alignments and pitch settings.
4.Can change the noisy gearbox/generator.

India's success story in the Wind Energy Sector

In the 94000 MW worldwide capacity, India stands 4th with 7850MW installations. This sector is growing @26.6% annually. Tamilnadu, Karnataka and Maharashtra are leading states.
Recently some state of art Provisional Typr Testing Facilities have been developed in India.

Why not make Wind Energy a B -Tech branch in IITs

India is facing acute power crisis. Its going to worsen as fossil fuels get depleted. We have lots of tech issues resolved in the wind power sector, but some still exist. Wind power is growing at a rate of 22% per annum. It needs dedicated techies to work in the industry.
Microsiing, Wind mapping, compnent designing, operation and maintenance, gris connectivity are some of the many subjects that can be in the curriculum.

How to overcome Gearbox Problem

Gearbox is the most difficult item in the supply chain of wind turbines. Larger the gearbox, more is the problem.

Suzlon has some inhouse capacity, but thats not enough. Lets solve this problem by 5 point plan:-

1. Declrare incentives for gearbox manufacturers.

2.Setting up a tech mission roping in IITs to suggest design changes to imrove reliability.

3.Make import duty free.

4.Allow free transportation to reduce landing cost.

Due Diligence Report

Wind farm is a huge project. Every project that needs financing goes through 'Due Diligence Report'. Its a techno-economical-legal verifiction report. It helps us know:-
1. The overall wind energy market scenario.
2. Economic viabilty of the wind power project.
3.Constraints ans their trend.
4.Analysis of various players
5.Legal aspects
6. Future prospects.
7.Technical details.