Windmills Making Clean Energy Mainstream M/S 16 Bidang Energy Kata Kunci Energy,Windmills

TARIKH 28 APRIL 2018 AKHBAR NEW STRAITS TIMES TAJUK ARTIKEL WINDMILLS MAKING CLEAN ENERGY MAINSTREAM M/S 16 BIDANG ENERGY KATA KUNCI ENERGY,WINDMILLS GREEN ENERGY WINDMILLS MAKING CLEAN The largest rotor blades can reach 82m in length, comparable to the wingspan ■ of an Airbus A380, the world's largest commercial plane, writes STANLEY REED T THE northern end of be dominated by companies like Denmark’s Jutland Vestas Wind Systems and peninsula, the wind Siemens Camesa Renewable En blows so hard that rows ergy. of trees grow in one direction,The like heart of the Siemens gnarledA flags. Gamesa business lies in Brande, a The relentless weather over small Jutland town. It was there in this long strip of farmland, bogs the early 198O’s that an en and mud flats — and the real trepreneur named Peter world laboratory it provides — Sorensen founded a wind busi has given the country a leading ness called Bonus with a couple of role in transforming wind power workers from his father’s irriga into a viable source of clean en tion company. ergy. Siemens bought Bonus in 2004, After energy prices spiked dur and today Brande is home to large ing the 1973 oil crisis, en engineering, training and main trepreneurs began building small tenance hubs. turbines to sell here. Slaff sitting at consoles there “It started out as an interest in can monitor wind farms around providing power for my parents’ the globe. Often, when a problem farm,” said Henrik Stiesdal, who shuts a turbine down, they can designed and built early proto restart it electronically without ' types with a blacksmith partner. needing to send a maintenance The initial windmills made by team. small operations had quality At a cavernous workshop, tech problems. Blades — then just 15 nicians build custom turbine It’s a difficult balance far man sprawling wind farms in the sea. The first offshore wind farm feet in lenglh — would break or models and facilities for testing ufacturers to achieve both size fall apart. wheLher components are robust and efficiency. was built using a barge that, had a Now, Lhey are giants, made by enough to last two decades or The largest blades already crane mounted on a truck. Com global players pulling off enor more. Inside, the towers are so.big weigh around 30 tonnes, and panies today have developed spe mous feats of engineering. that elevators haul engineers up making them longer adds to their cialised vessels to carry these off The biggest turbines in Oster- and down. Passengers must wear weight, fast. Overweight blades shore turbines to their floating ild stretch more than 600 Feet a climbing harness in case they might lead to turbines being worn platforms. high. The largest rotor blades can fail. down faster and would put enor They must contend with a va reach 82 metres, in length, com The rotors are connected to the mous stress on other compo riety of challenges, including the parable to the wingspan of an Air windmill tower by a nacelle — a nents. corrosive impact of saltwater. To bus A38O, the world’s largest large enclosure the size of a trail Designers are testing tweaks to service wind farms far from the commercial plane. The price tag: er, with plenty of room inside to the shape and size of a blade, shore, maintenance crews some times live on special ships. Up to IO million euros (RM47.8 walk around. experimenting with the changes million), or more than $12 million. Looming over the top deck out in wind tunnels or on computers. It's a complicated calculus. In the early years, building an The first The monstrous scale has side are the rotors. When they They have found that gluing var helped turn wind into a main whirl, the whole column sways like ious add-ons to the blades can offshore wind farm was fantas ■ offshore ivind tically expensive and govern stream form of power. a ship at sea. substantially boost perfor farm was built Larger turbines harness more Making these blades is difficult mance. ments offered generous subsidies to help the industry develop. But using; a barge that wind, creating more energy. The and labour-intensive. One fix — a combination of ser biggest modern offshore turbines Teams of workers gradually fill rated teeth and combs that re prices have been falling, and gov had a crane ernment support has “melted produce nearly 20 times as much a mold with strips of Fiberglass duce the sound of the blades — mounted on a power as ones developed three interlaced with balsa wood for was inspired by the wing feathers away”, according to Andreas Naucn, the chief executive , of truck. Companies decades ago. strength. They then inject resins of owls. The larger the size, the lower and other chemicals into the con Many of the big turbines -that Siemens Gamesa's offshore wind today have the cost of generating energy. In tainer to form the hardened are designed at the facility will division. developed parts of northern Europe, wind is structure. eventually make their way to the Lower costs, though, have also made wind power more appealing specialised vessels now a major power source- It ac The size of the blades,' and Lhe open water, where there is more elsewhere. Once mostly concen counts for 4- per cent of overall complexity of the process, mean space and the wind is more pow to carry these trated in northern Europe, Nauen global energy supply, according completely automating it does erful. is optimistic that new markets offshore turbines to to the International Energy Agen not make economic sense. Their huge components, diffi will emerge in Asia and the UniLed their floating cy. Around 1,300 people work in the cult to transport on roadways, States. - platforms. from those early Danish inno factory, and making a single blade can be loaded at ports onto spe vators, the industry has grown to can take about three days. cial boats, which take them to “This is real,” he said- NYT DISEDIAKAN OLEH 1-NORZEHAN BINTI NGADIRON, (N44), BPM 2-RAJA MUSFARIZAL BINTI RAJA MUHAMAD, (S19) BPM UNIT PERKKHIDMATAN MAKLUMAT, BPM.

Load more