Windpower Engineering & Development September 2021

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SEPTEMBER 2021

WINDPOWER ENGINEERING & D E V E LO P M E N T / / V O L . 1 3 N O. 3

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COVER STORY

crossing the power threshold for offshore wind turbines

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Low voltage systems can’t cut it anymore. The trend is using medium voltage converters to deliver the performance, reliability and LCOE demanded by highpower offshore wind turbines. Cover image credit: ABB

IN EVERY ISSUE

FEATURES

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CONTRIBUTORS

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WINDWATCH

08 Lowering floating wind project costs

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Some interesting product and policy news from our website.

WIND WORK AROUND THE UNITED STATES

On- and offshore wind project announcements from across the country.

FIND US ONLINE WINDPOWERENGINEERING.COM

See the latest wind power developments and U.S. project news on our website. Also find expert webinars and more from the leading wind power engineering magazine today.

SEPTEMBER 2021

Deployment, not time, will drive floating wind cost reductions. The

costs are already reducing as projects increase in size and lessons are learned.

14 Hydraulification of offshore wind turbines

Growing turbine sizes puts even greater pressure on sealing and hydraulic systems, and they must be designed and engineered with a comprehensive understanding of the material challenges they will face during installation.

www.windpowerengineering.com

22 Wind turbine OEM and operator collaboration

Innovation thrives when businesses talk to each other about the challenges they face. Trust needs to be earned — but it stems firstly from understanding.

26 Choosing the right lubricant for today’s turbines What kind of industrial enclosed and open gear lubricants are necessary to keep wind turbines in working order so they can be relied on to produce the everincreasing electricity needs of the country?

WINDPOWER ENGINEERING & DEVELOPMENT

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WINDPOWER ENGINEERING & DEVELOPMENT DR. SHUBHAMITA BASU is the North America Product Manager for Industrial Oils at Lubrizol, where she manages the hydraulic fluid, industrial gear oil and turbine oil portfolio. Dr. Basu has worked extensively in developing new molecules, engine oils and limited slip-gear oil applications, as well as formulating hydraulic fluid and industrial gear oils. She has also led an energy efficiency initiative and spearheaded environmentally acceptable lubricant development.

DR. SHUBHAMITA BASU

DR. GARETH FISH

DAN KYLESPEARMAN

CARLOS NAZARIO

CHRIS POYNTER

MARCEL SCHREINER

MARTIN SØRENSEN

JONAH URY

DR. GARETH FISH is an internationally recognized lubricants industry professional with more than 32 years of experience who joined Lubrizol in 2007. He has authored more than 60 technical papers on grease and tribology and been awarded three U.S. patents. Dr. Fish earned a B.S. in Chemistry and a Ph.D. in Tribology from Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, in London, England.

DAN KYLE-SPEARMAN is an Associate Director in RCG’s London office, leading on floating wind. He is an expert in floating offshore wind and has worked with the leading developers to reduce the cost and risks to enable the future commercialization of floating wind. He has a proven track record of delivering complex projects with multiple stakeholders across a range of topics in both fixed and floating offshore wind. He has a wide range of offshore wind experience, having managed the Floating Wind Joint Industry Programme and the O&M workstream in the world-leading Offshore Wind Accelerator (OWA) research program.

CARLOS NAZARIO is the North America Product Manager of Grease Additives for Lubrizol. He has worked extensively in developing and applying new lubricants for heavy-duty equipment and has formulated specialized extreme pressure grease gear oils, open-gear lubricants and energy efficient and environmentally acceptable lubricants for heavy-duty equipment.

CHRIS POYNTER is Division President of ABB System Drives. Chris joined ABB originally in 1980 working with industrial motion and power technology customers in marine, utilities and process Industries.

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WINDPOWER ENGINEERING & DEVELOPMENT

www.windpowerengineering.com

He has held various senior management positions in ABB’s drives, process automation and service businesses, working in Australia, Canada and Switzerland. Chris holds a degree in Electrical Technology and an Executive MBA in Marketing.

MARCEL SCHREINER is Global Segment Director of Freudenberg Sealing Technologies’ Energy Sector. In this role, he oversees a worldwide sales team that is focused on meeting the material and product needs of energy customers working in areas like switchgears, transformers, wind turbines, fuel cells, electrolyzer and battery storage systems. Schreiner earned his BA in electrical engineering from the University of Cooperative Education in Mannheim (Germany) in 2005 and a master’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Freiburg (Germany) in 2011. He has been employed by Freudenberg Sealing Technologies for 19 years. He specializes in the development of energy innovations like smart seals and long-life main bearing seals for wind applications.

With over a decade of experience driving innovation and business development in Cleantech on several continents, MARTIN SØRENSEN is WindESCo’s Director of Alliances, working to build mutually beneficial links within the wind sector. With a background in renewable energy, Martin previously worked at Vestas Innovation & Concepts Department, where he managed the financial and technical due diligence of emerging technologies for Vestas to invest in.

JONAH URY is a Senior Associate in RCG’s New York Office. He has expertise costing and bench-marking large-scale renewable energy projects, conducting levelised cost of energy (LCoE) modeling for wind farm development in the United States and worldwide, and analyzing U.S. energy market opportunities for investor reports. He has significant experience supporting largescale renewable energy development and investment for governments, developers and investors and has served as a key analyst on high-profile engagements in renewable energy M&A, greenfield site development and market entry strategy.

SEPTEMBER 2021

wind windWatch Watch what’s new

25,000 construction jobs need to be filled for rapid East Coast offshore wind development The Global Wind Organization reported that the U.S. offshore wind industry will need to fill 25,000 entry-level positions to work on offshore projects over the next five years. The forecast is focused on East Coast offshore developments and will require jobs in construction, installation, operations and maintenance to meet the needs of an estimated 9.1 GW of offshore wind development.

The organization calls for an immediate investment in standardized safety and technical training.

Bristol Community College

SEPTEMBER 2021

WINDPOWER ENGINEERING & DEVELOPMENT

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WIND WATCH

w h at’s n ew

Pearce Renewables acquires O&M Division of U.S. Wind construction leader Mortenson

Federal government opens WEst Coast to new Offshore wind development

Renewable energy engineering and O&M provider Pearce Renewables acquired Mortenson’s O&M division in June. Mortenson Energy Services is the latest in a string of Pearce acquisitions of O&M companies in utility-scale wind, solar and energy storage markets.

Mortenson’s subsidiary has teams experienced in corrective maintenance, blade repair, component exchange and other technical wind operations.

The majority of U.S. offshore wind development news originates from the East Coast, but the Biden Administration gave the go-ahead in late May to open offshore wind development on the West Coast. Initial lease areas identified for development already have the potential for 4.6 GW of offshore wind development off the California coast. Lease area sales are expected to begin in 2022.

800-MW Vineyard Wind offshore project being built

by Massachusetts union labor

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The Massachusetts Building Trades and local union affiliates are handling construction of Vineyard Wind 1, an 800-MW offshore wind project located off the Massachusetts coast. The project labor agreement ensures laborers will have “fair, familysupporting wages and thorough workplace protections” while building the nation’s first commercial-scale offshore wind project.

Federal agencies create permitting processes to accelerate offshore wind

BLM requests comments on proposed 1-GW Idaho wind farm

The Bureau of Ocean Management and North Atlantic Division of the United States Army Corps Engineers are offering agencies additional resources to evaluate and speed up the federal permitting process of offshore wind development. The Commonwealth of Virginia Offshore Wind project and Kitty Hawk Offshore Wind Project in North Carolina will be the first to use the new permitting process.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is seeking public comment on a proposed 1,000-MW wind farm planned for southern Idaho. The Lava Ridge Wind Energy Project, which will be sited 25 miles northeast of Twin Falls, is part of the Biden-Harris administration’s plan to develop 25 GW of onshore renewable energy production on public lands, with this project site managed by the BLM.

WINDPOWER ENGINEERING & DEVELOPMENT

www.windpowerengineering.com

SEPTEMBER 2021

Wind work around the

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Colorado Colorado wholesale power provider Guzman Energy signed a PPA with Leeward Renewable Energy resulting in the development of a 145-MW wind farm in Weld County. Construction of the Panorama Wind Farm should be completed this December and will use 60 Vestas-American Wind Technology turbines.

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i m ag e C r e d i t: Pat t e r n E n e r g y

7 Pattern Energy building nation’s largest single-phase wind project

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New Mexico Pattern Energy is constructing a 1.05GW wind farm in New Mexico, the largest single-phase renewable power project in U.S. history. A 150-mile 345-kV transmission line is being built alongside the Western Spirit Wind farm to reach the state’s electricity grid.

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EDP Renewables turns on 180-MW Texas wind farm

Texas EDP Renewables has began commercial operation of its Wildcat Creek Wind Farm, a 180-MW farm located 50 miles north of the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Wildcat Creek created 250 full-time jobs during construction and will support 10 permanent careers moving forward.

SEPTEMBER 2021

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Chautauqua, New York, now home to 125-MW wind farm

New York RWE Renewables has started commercial operations of the Cassadaga Wind Farm in Chautauqua County, New York, the company’s second wind facility in the state. The 125-MW project uses 27 Nordex and 10 Siemens Gamesa turbines.

Mayflower Wind offshore project finds grid connection in decommissioned coal plant

Massachusetts Mayflower Wind will connect to the grid through a decommissioned coalpowered plant located on the shore of Somerset, Massachusetts. The 1.6GW Brayton Point power plant, the largest coal-fired plant in New England, operated for 50 years. Mayflower Wind’s lease area expects 2 GW of power.

198-MW Headwaters II Wind Farm supports social media and retail giants

Indiana EDP Renewables completed the 198MW second phase of its Headwaters Wind Farm in Randolph County, Indiana.

Headwaters II joins an already operational 200-MW wind farm. Facebook has a 15year PPA on Headwaters for 139 MW, and Walmart’s long-term PPA is for 60 MW.

RWE Renewables completes first wind farm in Ohio

Ohio RWE Renewables has entered the Ohio wind market by completing its 250-MW Scioto Ridge Wind Farm in Hardin and Logan counties. The project is powered by 75 Siemens Gamesa turbines.

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Leeward Renewable Energy starts 145-MW Colorado wind project

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2,658 MW of offshore wind development contracts granted off NJ coast

New Jersey The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities voted in June to allocate 1,510 MW and 1,148 MW of offshore wind development to Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind and Ørsted, respectively.

The collective 2.6 GW of offshore wind development will also result in construction of industry-related manufacturing facilities.

WINDPOWER ENGINEERING & DEVELOPMENT

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By Jonah Ury • senior associate / Dan Kyle-Spearman • associate director • The Renewables Consulting Group

Offshore

wind has seen a remarkable cost reduction and growth over the last 30 years since the commissioning of Orsted’s 4.95-MW Vindeby Offshore Wind Farm, the first offshore wind project. Floating offshore wind, the next evolution of offshore wind technology, consists of wind turbines installed on floating platforms, held in position with mooring systems attached to the seabed. Floating offshore wind will enable projects to be installed in deeper waters, further offshore.

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WINDPOWER ENGINEERING & DEVELOPMENT

The offshore wind industry is at an exciting phase, a technology that is now enabling low-cost energy to be supplied at a utility scale anywhere with access to an ocean or lake. Offshore wind is increasingly seen as the powerhouse behind the transition to low-carbon generation and one of the key technologies to replace fossil fuel supply. According to RCG’s Global Renewable Infrastructure Projects (GRIP) database, offshore wind has grown at a compound annual growth rate of 35% from 2000 to 2021, therefore doubling in capacity every 30 months.

www.windpowerengineering.com

As the industry looks to increase energy generated from offshore wind, there are few shallow water seabed sites suitable for current offshore wind technology. Currently, nearly all offshore wind turbines are installed on monopiles or jackets that are fixed to the seabed. Fixed-bottom offshore wind requires shallow sites of up to 70 m — going deeper makes the size and weight of the foundation structures uneconomical.

In the United States, more than 58% of offshore wind resource is in waters

SEPTEMBER 2021

NREL

FLOATING WIND COST REDUCTIONS

deeper than 60 m; it’s 80% for Europe.

Clearly a new approach is required to harvest this energy.

The solution is to install wind turbines on floating platforms with sufficient stability, buoyance and damping of wave motions — called floating offshore wind. Floating offshore wind technology is an evolution of platforms developed four decades ago in the oil and gas industries for their deep-water operations. The platforms have been adapted and re-designed to consider the different loads and stability demands required for wind turbines, as well as a significant focus on cost reduction and serial production.

Generally speaking, suitable floating offshore wind sites require depths of at least 60 m, but minimum water depths are driven by local conditions.

Large floating offshore wind projects aren’t being built today because current costs are too high and there is an insufficient track record for project developers and financial institutions to be willing to take the risk in developing and investing in these projects.

However, analysis conducted by The Renewables Consulting Group shows that floating offshore wind costs will come down significantly over time. However, the rationale may be somewhat counterintuitive.

The analysis shows that the number of turbines installed or deployed is a major, if not the main, cost reduction driver for offshore wind. This same principle also applies to floating offshore wind.

Floating offshore wind is expected to follow similar cost reduction pathways as was seen moving from onshore to fixed-bottom offshore wind — onshore wind created a stepping-stone to support learning, development of supply chain and transferable skills.

Floating costs are currently at a premium compared to fixed-bottom projects at over $200/MWh, however costs are reducing as projects increase in size and lessons are learned. The upcoming 250-MW project in Brittany, France, will have a maximum price of $141/MWh and, considering this will be a competitive auction

process, the award price is expected to be well south of $120/MWh. With further deployment, floating wind will become a cost-competitive renewable technology. Floating wind deployment is gradually increasing over time with the largest floating wind project, the 50-MW Kincardine farm, being commissioned this year in Scotland and soon to be overtaken by the 88-MW Hywind Tampen farm currently under construction in Norway. This gradual build-out bolsters confidence in the technology and demonstrates cost reductions.

The move to offshore has had challenges, and similarly, floating will have new challenges that need to be considered. Moving from onshore to offshore required installing turbines offshore from either a floating vessel or a self-elevating platform (jack-up vessel), required marinization to protect turbines from the elements and accessing the turbines for maintenance and repair.

Levelized Cost of Energy (LCoE) – the average net present cost of electricity generation over a plant’s

Figure 1. Plot of LCOE reduction against time

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WINDPOWER ENGINEERING & DEVELOPMENT

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SEPTEMBER 2021

FLOATING WIND COST REDUCTIONS

Figure 2. Plot of LCOE reduction against deployment

lifetime – enables developers, investors and governments to assess and compare costs of energy from different generation sources. RCG has undertaken analysis using IRENA’s Renewable Power Generation Costs in 2020 to assess the trends of costs against time and deployment. There is a clear trend showing deployment as a clearer driver of cost reduction than time. Note that the trend shows an often-neglected rise before reduction, partly driven by moving to sites further offshore, but does show initial challenges in scaling from small-scale demonstration projects to large commercial-scale projects.

However, the deployment figure shows that the hump in costs is much shorter in the deployment scale.

This analysis shows that the expectation that costs fall naturally with time is flawed. If the objective is to reduce costs to compete with mainstream generation, the focus should be on how to facilitate increased deployment. Of course, increasing deployment must be combined with ambitious cost reduction pathways together with a considerable effort and investment into R&D and supply chains.

Over the past 20 years, increased deployment has facilitated the following

SEPTEMBER 2021

key cost reduction forces for fixedbottom offshore wind and will again drive costs down for floating wind: • Learning rate — “learn by doing” in the design, installation and operational phases of projects and applied to future projects, within the project but also learnings from all involved companies.

• Supply chain — simply making more items enables companies to supply at a lower cost (economies of scale), and additionally, a strong pipeline of projects enables investment into production, such as automation, making “step changes” in cost reduction.

• Cost of finance — institutional investors are interested in large projects with low risk. This enables more financing options, increased competition and reduced transactional costs.

• Competition — multiple large-scale projects enables competitive bids which challenges project developers and their suppliers to construct projects in the most efficient and cost-effective manner.

• Efficiency in scaling — larger-scale projects dilute fixed costs, leading to supply and installation process

•

efficiencies. Further, increasing turbine sizes reduces the number of platforms required for a given project size.

Serial production — when there is sufficient scale and technology maturity, serial projection will make individual components and processes more routine and commoditized.

Floating wind will utilize the supply chain fixed-bottom offshore wind has created for turbines, towers and vessels, however the approach to installing wind turbines on floating foundations requires some new approaches. The key cost drivers specific for floating wind and beyond those benefiting from offshore wind experience broadly are: • Fabrication, manufacturability and serial production of floating platforms — Considering the size of the floating foundations, there is a higher cost compared to fixedbottom foundations. Optimization to consider the efficient fabrication of large structures, while also designing platform solutions for ease of fabrication. Increased deployment (and refinement of

WINDPOWER ENGINEERING & DEVELOPMENT

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FLOATING WIND COST REDUCTIONS

•

designs) will drive supply chains to serial production of foundation fabrications, which may be one of the biggest ways to reduce capital expenditures.

Logistics, both onshore and offshore — Logistics solutions will not be driven by single projects but many projects constructed and installed globally and simultaneously. The global supply chain will need to accommodate the cradle to grave of projects with massive and heavy components sourced and shipped from around the world. There will likely be multiple global hubs, but also local staging areas to ensure effective and efficient movement of goods.

•

•

Reducing project risks and improving bankability — There is a strong appetite from investors and project developers for floating wind, however they require a track record of projects to provide competitive financing and to enable the creation of an investor-friendly asset class.

This track record will demonstrate actual project availabilities, turbine performance, liabilities and warranties are achieved once in operation.

Platform consolidation — There are a significant number of floating platform designs being developed.

The cost of fully commercializing a platform is significant, therefore the more platforms are being developed independently, the larger the cost to mature floating

•

wind as a whole to 500+ MWscale projects. Consolidation to a small number of platforms will enable the market, especially the supply chain, to understand the technology design and fabrication requirements and invest themselves in suitable infrastructure.

Design optimization — Floating wind projects are being designed to reduce fabrication, installation and operational costs. A holistic approach should consider not only the design of the floater, but also all elements required for a floating projects, from the seabed to the top of the turbine blade, including mooring systems and electrical systems. Operational lives are

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FLOATING WIND COST REDUCTIONS

•

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expected to be over 30 years, therefore ensuring and monitoring asset integrity is critical as well as not selecting the lowest cost option in construction and assessing rather the whole life costs.

Heavy maintenance — Technician access to turbines for routine maintenance is not expected to be significantly different from fixed-bottom projects; however, replacement of large components on floating platforms poses both new risks and opportunities.

There are two main options: undertaking the replacement offshore or towing the units for repair in a port or in sheltered waters.

The risk is the lack of track record with these operations for floating wind, the upside is not requiring expensive jack-up vessels.

Contracting strategies — A different approach is required compared to fixedbottom wind. Contracts must account for the fact that turbine and floater behavior is much more coupled, affecting installation, performance and operations. Additionally, the key installation contracts will be sourced from different supply chains, where jackup vessels are no longer needed, but fabrication, mooring and handling vessels are required.

In understanding that deployment is a main cost driver, how can cost reduction be further accelerated? Policy makers and industry can provide the necessary levers and shift their focus from R&D to commercialization, enabling larger floating wind projects and faster buildout to drive down costs quickly. The focus should be on offtake markets, supply chain investments and de-risking finance rather than supporting new floater designs.

There will be higher costs for first-mover projects, but these should be viewed as investments into the local supply chain and economy, increasing the local content of local projects and reducing the costs for future projects. Direct investments in supply chain are an alternative mechanism to enhance local industry capacity and capability, and ensure projects are built using local companies. WPE

SEPTEMBER 2021

NREL

WINDPOWER ENGINEERING & DEVELOPMENT

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HYDRAULIFICATION SEALING SYSTEMS

BY MARCEL SCHREINER • GLOBAL SEGMENT DIRECTOR • FREUDENBERG SEALING TECHNOLOGIES’ ENERGY SECTOR

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WINDPOWER ENGINEERING & DEVELOPMENT

www.windpowerengineering.com

SEPTEMBER 2021

The

offshore wind energy industry is on the cusp of a significant transformation, fueled by increased demand for clean energy sources, technological advances and improved efficiencies.

Based on projects currently under construction, annual installations of offshore wind turbines are predicted to grow from 6 GW in 2019 to 15 GW in 2024. And the pace is expected to accelerate through the second half of the decade and beyond: A nearly tenfold increase in global capacity is projected by 2030 and total installations could reach nearly 1,000 GW by 2050, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). The bulk of the growth will come from Asia but there also will be significant new capacity in Europe and North America, while initial installations in South America and Oceania are set to begin.

At the same time, the industry continues to transition to hydraulic power and piston-based accumulators.

The rapid growth and evolving technologies are creating new challenges and opportunities throughout the supply chain. Equipment must withstand harsher conditions, be maintenancefree and last longer. All of this puts even greater pressure on sealing and hydraulic systems, and they must be designed and engineered with a comprehensive understanding of the material challenges they will face during installation and use.

Adobe

S to c k

The (really) big — and deep — picture It is not just that there are more installations.

Offshore wind turbines are getting bigger themselves — a lot bigger.

The average capacity of offshore units more than tripled from 1.6 MW in 2000 to 5.5 MW in 2018. In the last two years alone the average size of an offshore turbine has jumped to 10 MW, while new installations planned through 2025 and 2030 are expected to average 12 MW and as much as 15 to 20 MW, respectively.

The cause of the trend comes down to economies of scale. The incremental cost of increasing the size of a turbine is much

SEPTEMBER 2021

WINDPOWER ENGINEERING & DEVELOPMENT

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HYDRAULIFICATION & ADVANCED SEALING SYSTEMS

less than adding multiple smaller installations with the same combined capacity. This reduces overall costs to help make offshore wind energy more competitive with traditional fossil fuel sources.

Offshore costs already have plummeted by two-thirds over the past five years. This makes them an even more attractive solution than land-based wind farms, which saw a more modest 20% decline in cost during the same period. Strict regulations further limit the future of land sites.

Aquatic wind farms, meanwhile, are moving farther offshore and into deeper water. In Europe, the current average distance from shore is about 60 km. But new units in East Asia are being located as far out as 300 km in waters as deep as 2 km, which requires longer cables and components with tighter tolerances that can withstand even harsher environments.

In addition to being less crowded or publicly intrusive as near-shore installations, turbines located farther offshore tend to produce more energy because they are subjected to higher and more sustained winds.

Loading up with hydraulification Higher capacity systems require larger turbine blades, which are beginning to top 220 m in diameter in the latest applications. Such large systems also are heavier, thus create higher load pressure — especially as the rotor plate passes by the turbine tower — and put more stress on rotating and transmission components.

Handling higher loads requires continuous pitching, rather than doing so only when conditions change, to find the optimal position

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WINDPOWER ENGINEERING & DEVELOPMENT

and ensure smooth operation. This can be extremely demanding even for short durations, moving threetimes per turn and 20 rotations per minute. Wear and tear are compounded over the life of the turbine, with new systems expected to last 25 years or more and several hundred million load cycles — which can push standard materials and components beyond their ability to function.

But failure isn’t an option. If there is even a 5% risk rate among the current 1,000 offshore wind turbines, this could result in 50 non-operational units each year. At projected 2030 levels, the number of affected systems could easily quadruple to about 1,000.

To better manage continuous load fluctuations, manufacturers are increasingly using hydraulic pitching systems in place of electrically actuated ones. Full hydraulification teams a hydraulic cylinder for movement with hydraulic accumulators for load-peak shaving.

This is counter to other industries that are increasingly switching from hydraulic power to electric-driven systems. In the case of wind turbines, however, hydraulic actuation is better suited to handle heavier rotors.

Maintaining an electric system would require the use of larger, heavier gears.

Sealing and accumulator solutions The huge internal forces generated by large turbines have a significant impact on roller bearings and seals. However, structural components of such seals can’t be scaled up accordingly in terms of size and function.

But there are other ways to achieve the durability and quality needed to withstand the harsh

www.windpowerengineering.com

requirements of large offshore wind turbines. This includes using piston accumulators in place of traditional bladder-style systems.

Piston-based accumulators have a smaller gap at the gasket than elastomer bladders, and thus are less susceptible to permeation. As a result, new installations are almost exclusively using piston systems, which also are increasingly being retrofitted into existing offshore turbines as they are serviced.

Freudenberg Sealing Technologies further limits the chance for leaks by integrating an in-house sealing and accumulator expertise to produce a combined solution. This integrated piston accumulator system for offshore wind application features a high-quality piston seal (SIMKO 300) within a steel piston accumulator — a design that creates optimal tribology for its seals and provides additional protection through the use of high-grade steel, superior surface finishing and highquality standards throughout the entire assembly.

Offering the perfect synergy of functionality and quality, the combined system also enables greater pressure within the accumulator without increasing the overall size. These offshore accumulators have been designed by adapting long-validated technology that the company supplies for automatic gearboxes in passenger cars and commercial vehicles. It’s the logical evolution of sealing technology in offshore applications.

The proven design allows for a high level of standardization to improve manufacturing efficiencies and reduce costs. But it’s also easy to customize the accumulators for application-specific requirements

SEPTEMBER 2021

HYDRAULIFICATION & ADVANCED SEALING SYSTEMS

as needed. The technology is highly transferable.

Lifetime performance requirements Offshore wind generation is one of the most promising power generation alternatives available today. It’s abundant, environmentally friendly and becoming much more economical.

The biggest challenge for components is to meet strict performance requirements in ultraharsh conditions, then maintain them over increasingly long lifecycles. Such criteria likely will become even more

SEPTEMBER 2021

demanding in the future as installations continue to ramp up and users become more reliant on the technology to meet growing worldwide energy consumption.

It can take five to 10 years to develop, install and complete a new offshore wind farm. This is followed by a more than 25-year life expectancy, which means that systems currently under development likely will still be in service well past 2050.

To that end, Freudenberg puts its products through vigorous testing and validation throughout

the development and production processes. The goal isn’t just to survive in today’s environment, it’s to anticipate and exceed future requirements — including once-in-a-century storm events that are becoming much more frequent.

As technology continues to evolve, hydraulification and pistonbased accumulators will become more commonplace throughout the offshore wind industry. But supplier expertise and commitment to quality could ultimately decide the winners and losers. WPE

WINDPOWER ENGINEERING & DEVELOPMENT

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WINDPOWER ENGINEERING & DEVELOPMENT

www.windpowerengineering.com

SEPTEMBER 2021

At 13 MW,

the Haliade-X wind turbines that GE is supplying for the UK’s Dogger Bank Wind Farm are currently the most powerful in the world. However, the next generation turbines will push the power up to 15, 16 or even 20 MW. That means we are crossing the threshold beyond which low voltage (LV) systems could

SEPTEMBER 2021

struggle to cope with the higher currents and losses in generators, converters and cables. This is driving a trend to medium voltage (MV) converters that can deliver the combination of performance, reliability and levelized cost of energy (LCOE) demanded by high-power offshore wind turbines.

LV is certainly a simple and effective technology for use at lower power levels. It is also technically feasible at higher powers. The challenge is that the high currents involved require multiple converter modules to be connected in parallel. The space occupied by the converter system then increases roughly in proportion to its power. This has a knock-on effect in increasing the size and weight of the turbine nacelle

considerably, as well as complicating the mechanical stability and the logistics during turbine erection.

In industrial power applications it is well known that LV is most costefficient at low power levels, while MV is superior at high power levels. The same applies to wind turbines. As their power increases, MV converters become more competitive. The higher voltage means lower currents in the electrical drivetrain, which in turn enables the use of smaller cables along with a smaller converter footprint and less weight. In addition, MV converters boost overall turbine efficiency through the use of IGCT (integrated gate-commutated thyristor) semiconductor technology.

While the technical advantages of MV converters are clear, there are still challenges to their widespread adoption. The first is simply that there is one driving force in renewable energy these days: how to make it cheaper than conventional power. That is manifested in increased price pressure on turbine manufacturers and their suppliers.

Everyone talks about total cost of ownership (TCO), and that is of course

WINDPOWER ENGINEERING & DEVELOPMENT

19

CROSSING THE POWER THRESHOLD

an important consideration. Yet it is the initial capital cost that is most often the make-or-break factor.

Proving the financial attractiveness of MV technology must take into account the investment costs for the complete electrical drivetrain. This includes the converter, switchgear, cooling systems, control and other ancillary equipment. Other associated costs, such as cabling and the impact of converter size and weight also need to be included in the calculation.

Ultimately, this calls for a particular focus on value engineering to drive down costs to help customers stay competitive.

The second challenge is the need for exceptional reliability. For example, in a traditional wind farm of say 20 turbines, each rated at 3.5 MW, the failure of a single unit results in a 5% loss of output. But if that wind farm is replaced by five mega-turbines, then one turbine going offline will result in an unacceptable 20% loss of generation. At the same time, megaturbines tend to be installed in more remote areas, further offshore, where it might not even be possible to gain access for maintenance for six months of the year.

MV converters do have an inherent advantage with respect to reliability, as they use fewer components than LV models. Manufacturers are working to take this reliability to the next level. One small example is the use of self-healing components, such as capacitors that can restore their insulation properties after a breakdown. Encoders and fuses are also examples of components that tend to fail due to aging. MV converters can be designed to operate without encoders, using software control instead. In addition, fuses can be eliminated by operating with advanced breaker control algorithms.

SEPTEMBER 2021

Ensuring reliability depends ultimately on extensive testing in close to real-world conditions and the collection of big data. Through digitalization, it is now possible to measure aspects that were never measured before, such as the temperature changes and switching rates of the tiniest components. The insight gained from testing and field experience is being built into onboard analytics for MV converters as the basis for remote condition monitoring. The benefit is that any potential reliability issues can be detected at an early stage, enabling wind turbine operators to take preventive action before it causes a failure.

While MV converters are the future technology for the largest offshore wind turbines, they are already a wellestablished commercial proposition. In fact, ABB has over 200 units in current operation in the North Sea, Baltic and

off the Chinese coast. This fleet is set to grow considerably over the next two years with the deployment of 95 units to GE Renewable Energy for installation at Dogger Bank Wind Farm.

They will enable the 220-m turbines to produce a total 1.2 GW in the first phase.

LV converters will continue to dominate the majority of installations, especially onshore. In contrast, MV converters will always remain something of a niche and relatively low volume product. Yet in the very important niche occupied by the largest offshore wind turbines, MV is sure to emerge as the technology of choice. WPE

WINDPOWER ENGINEERING & DEVELOPMENT

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NREL

W

t

By Martin Sørensen • Director of Alliances • WindESCo

As

the wind industry continues to scale-up globally, now is the time to reimagine how key players within the sector interact with each other, learning lessons from industries such as rotorcraft — where the correct functioning of complex gearboxes and rotating blades is a matter of life and death, incentivizing greater collaboration between aircraft designers, manufacturers and service providers.

There is growing recognition that innovation in the wind industry thrives when businesses talk to each other about the challenges they face. Key to enabling this are independent service providers (ISPs) that can act as unbiased advisors and form the glue between key stakeholders.

SEPTEMBER 2021

By adopting a more open approach to collaboration, innovation and data sharing, all parties can ultimately benefit. When more conversations happen between businesses, the industry benefits as a whole, because trust needs to be earned — but it stems firstly from understanding.

ISPs can build bridges “Independent service providers” is a term used to describe third-party businesses that offer vital support to help wind farms produce energy more efficiently. Although ISPs can occupy many positions in the wider supply chain, the need to improve wind turbine performance has led to a rise in businesses offering data analysis

services to optimize wind assets.

The leading firms demonstrate a deep wind turbine expertise and firsthand understanding of how complex factors such as wind dynamics, turbine controls and wind loads affect revenue, offering the fine-grained insight into asset performance necessary to address inefficiencies and significantly boost annual energy production (AEP) and profitability.

ISPs offer operators increased control over their assets. A better understanding of their turbines’ performance means that operators can justify key strategic decisions to investors using hard data. This is particularly important when portfolios have a diverse mix of wind turbine

WINDPOWER ENGINEERING & DEVELOPMENT

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WIND TURBINE OEMS & OPERATOR COLLABORATION

assets, demanding broad yet deep performance improvement data and experience on a range of models, rather than a single original equipment manufacturer (OEM).

ISPs’ position in the market ideally places them to act as a go-between, serving the interests of OEMs, operators and other key wind industry stakeholders with no conflict of interest.

Are OEMs and ISPs natural partners?

So how can OEMs benefit from the contacts and expertise that leading ISPs provide?

Although the exact relationship between OEMs and operators can differ for each project, there are two key gains to be had from engaging with third-party data analytics companies: feedback on common turbine issues and hitting contractual expectations.

ISPs can help OEMs deliver peak performance margins from their components and, in turn, empower wind farm owners and their operators to optimize asset performance.

Feedback on common turbine issues With the surge of investment in new wind assets, OEMs are focused on engineering the most reliable and wellbuilt turbines on the market. To that end, an open dialogue with wind farm operators, who deal with the machinery every day, can help OEMs optimize their designs, providing a competitive edge.

ISPs can provide greater transparency around asset performance for OEMs and operators. With access to data and analysis often overlooked by other parties, ISPs bring information that can open a dialogue about how specific models or processes can be improved for the benefit of all stakeholders. This could include valuable intelligence on key issues such as pitch bearing failure modes, blade misalignment issues and even operational considerations such as the placement of access hatches.

Meeting contractual expectations OEMs and operators will often have agreements in place to ensure that wind turbines at a specific project deliver to

NREL

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WINDPOWER ENGINEERING & DEVELOPMENT

www.windpowerengineering.com

pre-arranged specifications, in terms of reliability and AEP. By fine tuning asset performance, ISPs can ensure that OEMs are able to deliver profitable turbines for their customers. Critically, depending on the ISP in question, the investment necessary to achieve this can offer a high return on investment, with leading providers ensuring payback times of 12 months or less.

A new wind industry, based on trust The wider benefits to the industry from a more open, collaborative relationship between OEMs and operators won’t materialize overnight. Creating mutual understanding and collaboration for innovation takes time. But once wind industry businesses start to pull in the same direction, technical and structural efficiencies will deliver higher margins for those who are ahead of the curve. A strategic agreement with an agile startup could lead to an OEM’s technology moving years ahead of the competition.

Discussions between OEMs and operators can lead to supply-chain wide knowledge transfer around critical topics like asset management best practices, third-party partnerships, O&M concerns and more.

Beyond the immediate financial gains of implementing AEP improvement programs, operators will also see long-term benefits as more efficient turbine designs start to filter through. Within the next decade, 60% of the global wind market will be controlled by three OEMs. Amid this consolidation, ensuring continued innovation will be crucial.

Importantly, ISPs can work to build lasting trust by articulating the concerns of both OEMs and operators. This leads to stronger relationships between key stakeholders, generating stable revenue streams for OEMs, helping

SEPTEMBER 2021

WIND TURBINE OEMS & OPERATOR COLLABORATION

operators and asset managers deliver higher revenues for their investors while shortening the road to decarbonization.

ISPs can therefore play a central role in building an ecosystem for AEP improvement to enable a holistic overhaul of wind fleet performance, ensuring optimized wind turbines become the norm and delivering more energy to the industry every day.

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The wind industry of 2050 will be collaborative As the world looks ahead to a zerocarbon future, renewable energy will increasingly bear the responsibility of powering homes, transport and industry.

This offers the wind sector a global opportunity for expansion, securing wind as the new resource of choice for investors.

Across the EU, strategic partnerships to enable green tech knowledge transfer will play a key role in boosting innovation. Denmark, for example, has outlined ambitions to apply the skills of its renewables industry across the scale of India’s market following the Green Strategic Partnership signed between the two nations earlier this year.

Denmark’s other partnerships include a Memorandum of Understanding with the United States around offshore wind, and a Green Maritime Agreement with China.

By taking steps now to build more open relationships between OEMs and operators, strong growth should follow, ensuring the sector is poised to deliver clean energy more profitably, and ultimately, more sustainably. WPE

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CHOOSING THE RIGHT

LUBRICANT FOR TODAY’S WIND TURBINES

By Shubhamita Basu, Carlos Nazario and Gareth Fish • Lubrizol

WIND

energy has steadily become one of the strongest components of electricity generation in the United States over the past 30 years. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, costs to produce wind energy continue to go down, while incentives to produce it — from the government’s production tax credit (PTC) and other programs — have significantly improved its competitiveness when compared to fossil fuels.

The overall electricity generation from wind in the United States reached 338 billion kWh in 2020 and was the source of about 8.4% of the total U.S. utility-scale electricity generation.

And with the promised investments in wind energy in the current U.S. administration’s infrastructure plan, the percentage is only expected to increase in the coming years.

The increase in wind production, however, leads to the following question: What kind of industrial enclosed and open gear lubricants are necessary to keep these machines in working order so they can be relied on to produce the ever-increasing electricity needs of the country? As the sophistication of wind turbines increases, so must the sophistication of gear lubricants.

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WINDPOWER ENGINEERING & DEVELOPMENT

New fluid technologies can improve traction coefficients, film thicknesses, energy efficiencies and temperature reductions. The introduction of new, versatile performance polymers (PP) can significantly improve the enduse behavior of these lubricants. This article will examine the role of PPs in current lubricant technology and what significant improvements they provide for both industrial and open gear systems.

Industrial Gear Oils Enclosed gearboxes are key components in the nacelles of many wind turbines. To keep these systems operating at maximum efficiency, the gears must be appropriately lubricated with a suitable viscosity-grade industrial gear oil (IGO) formulated with the right performance credentials.

Recently, there has been a drive to develop advanced gearboxes that are specifically designed to meet the demand for higher power throughput.

Wind turbine gearboxes are significantly affected by the harsh operating conditions of wind farms, including load variation, vibration, temperature and fluctuation in wind speeds and direction.

As a result, micropitting and white etching cracks appear on wind turbine bearings and gearboxes, which can

www.windpowerengineering.com

amplify and lead to pitting, tooth breakage and other catastrophic failures over time.

Industrial gear oils play pivotal roles in maintaining the durability of gearboxes and preventing unplanned downtime.

In addition, higher operating temperatures can adversely affect the oil life because additive packages are used faster. Depleted additive packages can cause durability issues like scuffing and micropitting. The viscosity of the fluid changes with temperature, leading to poor film thickness and affecting tribological properties. As a result, parts fail in an untimely fashion. Reducing operating temperatures by even a few degrees can help maintain the oil life longer and ensure the durability of gearboxes.

Wind turbine gear oils are expected to have long drain intervals. Today, a seven-year oil drain interval has become the norm. Therefore, IGOs must be formulated to protect the gear surfaces and offer optimum performances for longer times.

They must: • Improve productivity and power throughput • Protect bearings • Prevent micropitting and white etching cracks • Reduce operating temperatures • Maintain oil viscosity and film thicknesses.

SEPTEMBER 2021

ck Sto be Ado SEPTEMBER 2021

WINDPOWER ENGINEERING & DEVELOPMENT

27

CHOOSING THE RIGHT LUBRICANT

GE

Synthetic industrial gear oils formulated with polyalphaolefin (PAO) are used in wind turbine gearboxes to maintain oil performance for longer periods of time while keeping a low operating temperature compared to conventional mineral oil-based industrial gear oil.

The key challenge of conventional synthetic IGOs, however, is high price, which can increase the total cost of ownership significantly. With the growing demand of wind energy, wind-farm owners, operators and oil marketers are in search of alternate ways to formulate synthetic IGOs to reduce the total cost of ownership while improving the performance and extending the oil drain interval.

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WINDPOWER ENGINEERING & DEVELOPMENT

Open Gear Systems Open gears in wind turbine applications are used to adjust the pitch of the blades and to rotate the nacelle for optimum wind capture. They can range in size from about 1 m (3 ft) in diameter for pitch mechanisms to larger than 6 m (20 ft) for yaw bearings under the nacelle. They take months to manufacture and cost upward of $100,000, so keeping them in appropriate working order is paramount.

Most industrial open gear systems are typically designed for singledirection operation with low-tomoderate peripheral velocity. In blade pitch applications, the gear set moves quasistatically through an arc of about 90°, but in the yaw mechanisms, they

www.windpowerengineering.com

may complete arcs or entire revolutions depending on the variability of the wind direction (though most of the time they are stationary). Ideally, they operate at temperatures between -20˚C and 50˚C. When used in offshore applications, the open gear lubricants (OGLs) also need to be able to prevent salt water/salt fog corrosion of the mating gear tooth surfaces.

As a result of their cost and the difficulty of replacing them easily, it’s important to maintain them with the proper OGLs. The global OGL market is approximately 12,000 metric tons. OGLs need to be designed for boundary and mixed lubrication applications as the gear begins to move and starts to pick up speed.

SEPTEMBER 2021

GE

CHOOSING THE RIGHT LUBRICANT

Over the past 50 years, OGLs have evolved significantly. Historically, OGLs were made of asphaltic bases without significant additive treatments, and there was no differentiation for OGLs based on end usage. Over time, OGLs have become more complex as scientists began to recognize that different open gear applications required different types of lubricants.

In the 1970s, scientists began differentiating types of OGLs based on end use and came to realize that while some open gear systems required compounds, other systems required grease. As lubricant manufacturers continued investigating the way OGLs were used, they began changing their understanding even more.

Today, most OGLs are divided into two different classes: mobile machines and stationary equipment. Mobile machines use semi-fluid greases, which include lowviscosity oils and solid lubricants. They require low-temperature pumping and must be able to handle hanging loads.

Stationary equipment, in contrast, must produce full-film lubrication, provide wear protection and load carrying, and allow for easy tooth inspection and disposal.

However, for wind turbine applications, the same OGLs are used for both pitch and yaw applications. The original black lubricants were replaced with clear viscous liquids to make gear tooth inspection easier.

Performance Polymers To address the shortcomings of conventional synthetic IGOs and OGLs formulated with PAOs, revolutionary PPs can be added to formulations. In both cases, new and improved PPs offer specific advantages over traditional synthetic formulations.

These PPs have unique architectures and are versatile, with superior thickening efficiency and shear stability. They reduce traction coefficients and dissipate heat faster, improve energy efficiency, and

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WINDPOWER ENGINEERING & DEVELOPMENT

exhibit thermal and oxidative stability.

Because of these properties, the PPs allow for versatile applications, including synthetic industrial gear oils and open gear lubricants for wind turbines.

Compared to traditional synthetic formulations using PAOs, the latest PPs help formulate a synthetic IGO formulation in a more cost-effective way and can offer 30% to 40% reduction in net treat cost compared to conventional synthetic formulations. They can reduce operating temperatures compared to traditional synthetic IGOs and can thereby reduce energy consumption and maintain the IGO properties for longer times.

In OGLs, the PPs provide versatility, either as a viscosity modifier or base fluid.

They also provide improved performance characteristics to OGLs and product sustainability, as well as reducing lubricant consumption and energy usage.

In fully synthetic formulations using PPs for OGLs, there is a high viscosity index and high kinematic viscosity at high operational temperatures. They produce excellent film thicknesses, significantly reduce temperatures throughout the entire process and increase energy efficiency. Finally, they maintain good low-temperature pumpability — there’s no heater system needed.

This innovative PP technology improves traction coefficients, film thicknesses and energy efficiencies while reducing operating temperatures. This demonstrates the differentiation between the improved fluid technologies and traditional IGO and OGL formulations.

As the United States increases its wind energy capacity, it will be important for manufacturers and developers to understand the most low-cost, effective way to protect their industrial gear and open gear systems. With the increased use of synthetic lubricants containing performance polymers, such protection will become that much easier. WPE

www.windpowerengineering.com

SEPTEMBER 2021

ADVERTORIAL

RAD Torque Systems shares its innovative torque technology for wind IN THIS SPECIAL Windpower Engineering & Development podcast interview, RAD Torque Systems walks us through its innovative torque technology for the wind industry.

Below is a portion of the interview with RAD Torque product manager Brian Warmerdam, but be sure to listen to the full episode on your favorite podcast app to learn more about the company's involvement in the wind market.

What demands have you seen specifically related to the wind industry?

There's two big paths that the wind industry is taking as far as the construction of the towers. Things are getting bigger every year, so we're working on bigger, more efficient tools. Some of those bolts are just growing exponentially, so we're trying to keep up with that as well as create smarter tools — tools that are ready to adapt into industry 4.0 environments that are capturing data and even using some closed loop feedbacks to make sure that they're operating effectively and can communicate that to the operator and the customer.

SEPTEMBER 2021

Safety is a concern in any trade, how has RAD Torque addressed this topic in the wind industry?

Things are getting bigger and bigger, and as the tools get bigger they get harder to hold, harder to manage. We have a plethora of accessories specifically just for hanging and holding tools in certain positions to make the ergonomics of the use and the weight a lot easier on the operators. Beyond the weight of the tool, the biggest danger with most power tools is accidental operation. We make sure that either software or mechanical safety is in place to prevent an operator from accidentally hitting a trigger when he's just trying to align the tool, making sure that the tool does not move unless it's actually performing the job it needs to do.

What kind of maintenance is required for these tools?

We recommend that the tools are calibrated yearly or after 20,000 to 25,000 cycles. Every customer's usecase is a bit different. Beyond calibration, maintenance is only really required when calibration breaks down. Either calibration is going to break down or the electronic

tool will actually tell you if something is wrong and maintenance is required. But that is rare.

How is RAD Torque planning on continuing to support the wind industry moving forward?

We are working directly with some of the bigger players in the wind industry to make sure that development of our product line, whether it be our audit tools or our torque tools, is in line with how they are progressing. We see a huge push to data-driven manufacturing, industry 4.0 coming out of Europe and Asia. Those standards are very important to us moving forward, and we're working directly with big manufacturers to make sure that we're providing the features that they're going to require in the next five to 10 years. WPE

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WINDPOWER ENGINEERING & DEVELOPMENT

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SEPTEMBER 2021

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