Last week I was in Denmark, and while there I had an opportunity to pay a visit to some wind turbines operated by Aalborg University in Northern Denmark. Getting to finally see and hear a fully functional 2.3 MW wind turbine “in the flesh” was pretty cool, I have to say.
There was a reasonable wind blowing at the time of my visit and the turbines were moving at around 15-18 RPM. Standing directly under the blades I could certainly hear them moving, but it wasn’t as loud as I had expected, and after moving just 50-100 yards away the sound diminished significantly.
The University also has a mast close to these turbines in order to measure wind speeds at different heights above the ground, as part of their research into efficiency of production.
Here are some photos…
November 6th, 2009 at 7:45 pm
There’s the Judith Gap Montana 135 MW (96 towers) near here. It’s pretty cool to watch those big blades turning. For some reason they make me think of Star Wars..but they’re quiet and graceful. I think they’re all 1.5MW and look very similar to the ones in your photos. GE recently bought a Dutch design turbine that has no gearbox or reduction transmission. That would reduce maintenance to about zip I’d think.
November 6th, 2009 at 10:51 pm
Tim: GE bought Scanwind, a Norwegian wind turbine company, at the beginning of September 2009. They were indeed focused on permanent magnet-based generators, which if I recall correctly, were originally designed by Siemens.