Wind turbines have evolved considerably since the first shaky steps were taken to produce electricity from wind. Not just in size and power potantial, but also from blade design, tower height, and gear box innovations. This year saw the unveiling and testing of a new line of turbines from GE that can generate almost a quarter more electricity than the nearest comparable turbine in terms of size and class. If you think’s that innovative, clever even, then you’ll understand why the range is called “Brilliant”.
GE’s Brilliant 1.6-100 and 1.7-100 wind turbines are different because they use a short-term, grid-scale battery storage system paired with asomething called an “industrial internet”. This is a sophisticated computer-based system that is able to predict when power will be needed and when the wind will be blowing. This increases efficiency and capacity factor, and therefore how much energy a turbine actually can produce.
The wind, much as we love it, does not blow all the time. It is an intermittent renewable source of energy and we are always trying to deal with its vagaries. When a light switch is thrown, you want the power to come on straight away, not just if there’s a wind at the local wind farm. Energy providers that take an hour or even a few minutes to come online when there is a demand for more power are worth less to those whose job it is to ensure that when you turn on your lights, there is energy ready at hand. In the past natural gas plants have been more valuable than, coal plants because it is easier to get a flow of methane to turn a turbine quickly than it is to stoke up and get a coal furnace hot.
When the wind blows near one of GE’s Brilliant turbines, the “industrial internet” will let the power producers and the grid operators know when that energy can be expected. It is able to micromanage the most efficient way to position the turbines for optimal rotation to harvest wind, and when the grid has enough electricity and is unable to use it, the battery system attached to the turbine allows it to feed excess electricity into the batteries. It is converted to electrochemical energy that the grid can use upon request, with nearly immediate turnaround time.
Using this battery-powered source to smooth and meet frequency regulation demand is much more efficient — it also allows the grid to dump extra electricity into the battery systems.
67 of these Brilliant turbines will be built and then instralled high up in the mountains of New South Wales in Australia later this year,. Grid connection and power flow into the grid is expected by the end of 2014. 59 are destined for Michigan as part of a wind farm planned by NextEra Energy Resources, while Invenergy Wind is building a wind farm in Mills County, Texas that will comprise three x 2.5 MW GE Brilliant turbines.
Are these new range of turbines so innovative that all other turbine manufacturers will begin to make their new-design turbines intelligent and with inbuilt battery storage? Watch this space!
