The History and State of the Art of Variable-Speed Wind Turbine Technology
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February 2001 • NREL/TP-500-28607 The History and State of the Art of Variable-Speed Wind Turbine Technology P.W. Carlin A.S. Laxson E.B. Muljadi National Renewable Energy Laboratory 1617 Cole Boulevard Golden, Colorado 80401-3393 NREL is a U.S. Department of Energy Laboratory Operated by Midwest Research Institute • Battelle • Bechtel Contract No. DE-AC36-99-GO10337 February 2001 • NREL/TP-500-28607 The History and State of the Art of Variable-Speed Wind Turbine Technology P.W. Carlin A.S. Laxson E.B. Muljadi Prepared under Task No. WER13010 National Renewable Energy Laboratory 1617 Cole Boulevard Golden, Colorado 80401-3393 NREL is a U.S. Department of Energy Laboratory Operated by Midwest Research Institute ••• Battelle ••• Bechtel Contract No. DE-AC36-99-GO10337 NOTICE This report was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the United States government. 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Box 62 Oak Ridge, TN 37831-0062 phone: 865.576.8401 fax: 865.576.5728 email: [email protected] Available for sale to the public, in paper, from: U.S. Department of Commerce National Technical Information Service 5285 Port Royal Road Springfield, VA 22161 phone: 800.553.6847 fax: 703.605.6900 email: [email protected] online ordering: http://www.ntis.gov/ordering.htm Printed on paper containing at least 50% wastepaper, including 20% postconsumer waste Table of Contents 1.0 Introduction............................................................................................................................................ 1 2.0 Fixed Speed Versus Variable Speed ..................................................................................................... 2 3.0 Methods of Implementing Variable Speed........................................................................................... 8 3.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 8 3.2 Variable Speed in Small Turbines–An Overview............................................................................. 9 3.3 Variable Speed in Large Turbines–An Overview............................................................................. 9 3.4 Generators....................................................................................................................................... 10 3.5 Reactive Power and VARs.............................................................................................................. 12 3.6 Power Electronics ........................................................................................................................... 15 3.7 Implementation of Variable Speed ................................................................................................. 17 4.0 Variable-Speed Machine Histories..................................................................................................... 19 4.1 NASA MOD-0 Plum Brook ........................................................................................................... 19 4.2 The Growian Variable-Speed Wind Turbine.................................................................................. 20 4.3 Bergey Excel................................................................................................................................... 22 4.4 MASA MOD-5B Wind Turbine System ........................................................................................ 23 4.5 DOE/Sandia National Laboratories/U.S. Department of Agriculture 34 Meter, Vertical-Axis Variable-Speed Test Bed......................................................................... 23 4.6 The Enercon E-40 Variable-Speed Wind Turbine.......................................................................... 24 4.7 The Gamma 60 Variable-Speed Wind Turbine .............................................................................. 25 4.8 Kenetech Windpower KVS-33 Variable Speed.............................................................................. 26 4.9 Nordic 400 Variable-Speed Wind Turbine .....................................................................................26 4.10 Advanced Wind Turbines AWT-26 Variable Speed with Doubly Fed Generator........................ 27 4.11 Northwind 100.............................................................................................................................. 28 4.12 The Vertical-Axis Variable-Speed EOLE at Cap Chat, Canada................................................... 29 4.13 The Danish Machine at Tvind....................................................................................................... 29 5.0 Conclusions: The Future of Variable Speed...................................................................................... 34 6.0 Power Conversion Design Details....................................................................................................... 35 6.1 Generators....................................................................................................................................... 35 6.2 Voltage-Frequency Converters ....................................................................................................... 50 6.3 Utility Interface............................................................................................................................... 55 7.0 A Look at Future Development .......................................................................................................... 56 8.0 Acknowledgements .............................................................................................................................. 59 Appendix A, Selected References .............................................................................................................. 60 iii 1.0 INTRODUCTION One of the earliest non-animal sources of power used by man was the wind turbine. Wind turbines have been in documented use for more than 1,000 years. The earliest wind turbine designs were extremely simple; turbines were allowed to rotate at a rate proportional to the velocity of the wind. They were used to pump water, grind grain, cut lumber, and perform a myriad of other tasks. For these purposes, varying speed seldom impacted the effectiveness of the windmill enough to justify the complications of closely controlling rotational speed. Allowing the machines to run at variable speed was in fact highly advantageous as it greatly increased the total energy that could be extracted from the wind. The earliest horizontal-axis windmill to use the principles of aerodynamic lift instead of drag may have been introduced in the twelfth century. These horizontal-axis sail turbines were allowed to run at varying speeds, limited only by braking or furling to control their speed during storms. These designs operated throughout Europe and in the Americas into the present century. In the 700 or so years since the first sail- wing turbine, designers discovered many of the key principles of aerodynamics without understanding the physics behind them. It was not until the nineteenth century that these principles began to be clearly understood. In the early nineteenth century the classic American water pumper was introduced. The need for this machine was driven by the phenomenal growth of agriculture in the American Midwest, beginning with the opening of the Northwestern prairie states in the early 1800s. More than a million of these machines dotted the Midwest and West starting in the early 1850s. Even now these multibladed farm windmills can be seen throughout the western United States and Canada, where the energy and storage requirements for providing drinking water for cattle are well matched to the wind water pumper’s power, the storage capacity of the associated stock tank, and the wind statistics of the Great Plains. These machines use the most rudimentary airfoils (often flat plates or slats of wood) and are allowed to rotate proportionally to wind velocity. For the purposes of direct mechanical water pumping, this variable-speed operation works effectively. Even though the American water-pumping design gives up something by its dependence on a flat-plate airfoil, its simplicity, ease of construction, and reliability still make it ideal for its intended purpose. The early twentieth century saw the start of the electric era. The rapid advances in motor, generator, lighting, and appliance designs by Edison, Steinmetz, Tesla and others offered the promise of an electric- powered utopia. The