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Wind turbines are big and getting bigger. The largest wind turbines now have towers that are over 150m tall, and blades that are well over 100m long. But how big can they get? And how big *will* they get?
In this video I’m going to talk about the engineering behind this, that helps designers decide how big wind turbines should be. I’ll briefly cover some overall scaling effects and then go into a bit more depth about structural design of the most important components: the blades, tower, gearbox and bearings.
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Bookmarks:
00:00 Intro
02:26 Factors affecting wind turbine sizes
03:14 The Square-Cube Law
04:29 Thanks to Brilliant for sponsoring this video!
05:13 Which is more aerodynamically efficient?
06:07 Tug of War Analogy
06:42 Team Big - Cost increases slower than power output
07:15 The Audience - Cost increases in line with power output
07:37 Team Small - Cost increases faster than power output
07:56 Wind turbine structural design and classical beam theory
09:23 Bending due to self-weight
10:34 Wind turbine blade mass vs length evolution
11:08 Potential solutions to the blade mass problem
11:23 Other issues with large blades
12:10 Issues with towers getting bigger
13:00 Potential solutions to the tower problem
13:22 Issues with the gearbox
14:17 Rosie's thoughts on the issue
15:30 Rosie's 10-year anniversary cake speech
17:13 Outro
Sources:
IRENA Wind Power cost analysis report: https://www.irena.org/-/media/Files/IRENA/Agency/Publication/2012/RE_Technologies_Cost_Analysis-WIND_POWER.pdf
NREL Increasing Wind Turbine Tower Heights:
https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy19osti/73629.pdf
NREL 2019 Cost of Wind Energy Review:
https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy21osti/78471.pdf
RISOE Cost Optimisation of Wind Turbines for Large-Scale Offshore Wind Farms: https://www.osti.gov/etdeweb/servlets/purl/605630
Upscaling wind turbines: Theoretical and practical aspects and their impact on the cost of energy: DOI: 10.1002/we.527
Key Performance Indicators and Target Values for Multi-Megawatt Offshore Turbines: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/263209341_Key_Performance_Indicators_and_Target_Values_for_Multi-Megawatt_Offshore_Turbines
Tall towers for large wind turbines: https://www.osti.gov/etdeweb/servlets/purl/992745
YouTube clips:
Nabrawind 160m tower prototype installation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RW9ENWdM79Q&t=14s
Airborne wind: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z94mLMAhl3s
Kincardine floating offshore: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6ROkGgPfIo
ACT Blade sailcloth blade: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9d1W-yARkRs
This video was sponsored by Brilliant