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Eleven wind parks in the Idaho Wind Partner Project will have the capacity to generate 183 MW. GE Energy Financial Services, Atlantic Power, and Exergy will own a non-managing member equity interests in the project. Reunion Power will hold a managing member equity interest and will act as the manager of the project. The wind farms will sell all their power to Idaho Power Company under 20-year agreements. Once completed, the portfolio is expected to qualify for the federal U.S. Treasury cash-grant program intended to stimulate renewable energy projects. Construction company Fagen Inc initiated project construction in June and is expected to complete the wind farms by the end of the year.

The Hunton Willimans Ridgeline wind project in Idaho

Hunton & Williams LLP has acted as project counsel for renewable energy development company Exergy Development Group LLC in partnership with GE Energy Financial Services, Reunion Power, and Atlantic Power Corporation to invest in Idaho’s largest wind power project. All three companies made equity investments in the nearly half-billion-dollar portfolio of 11 wind farms developed by Exergy.

“This is a significant project for renewable energy development and for Idaho. The project underscores Exergy’s core values of supporting the environment while developing power generation projects,” says Raj Pande, partner in the firm’s energy and project finance practice, who led the Hunton & Williams team.

Hunton & Williams LLC

hunton.com

Met towers are a must for a proper site assessment. But it takes a while to get them ordered, shipped, and erected, and their cost gets close to $100,000. Wouldn’t it be great to get the wind data without the tower?

Engineers at WindPole Ventures agree, and so have devised a way to acquire real-time, hub-height-standardized wind speed data from a nationwide portfolio of towers 60m and more. The company addresses the challenge of wind integration and intermittency by improving the quality of data available to ISOs, wind developers and operators, resource analysts, power traders, and government.

The transmission tower is in Minnesota. About 6,000 towers of this sort are available across the U.S. for collecting wind data.

The company says it has access to 6,000 towers in 39 states. Wind for 85% of the current and planned wind generation capacity passes through its 80 to 100-m towers. A few plusses include:

• Long booms and standard instrumentation lead to bankable data.
• Hub height, real-time data comes within 90 days of order.
• It’s a lower cost alternative to erecting towers and maintaining the equipment.
• Pre-existing towers require no permits. Disclose your plans on your schedule.

Conventional data sources are intended for aviation and consumer weather markets. They do not meet the need for wind-speed data at the hub height and above the 80-m boundary layer. WindPole says it has secured the only national tower set capable of measuring above the boundary layer.

Typically, surface data from 10-m towers at an airport in a valley can help “guesstimate” to the hub-height wind speeds needed by utility scale turbines. Satellite data can also project some land based wind-farm projects. Both are inaccurate and inadequate to meet investor due diligence and support wind power integration into the grid. All parties are focused on satisfying investors’ need for de-risked projects recognizing capital as the top barrier to wind power deployment. WindPole’s plan instruments 580 existing tall towers that extend above the boundary layer of 80m to collect real-time wind speed and direction data.

A few comments on the table

1. These are mostly radio towers, such as Sabre 3600, and not cellular radio towers.

2. Hub height is assumed to be 80m, increasing to 100m.

3. Wide dispersion of forecasting up to hub height yields a ±10% error. Investors pick lower power and revenue estimates that require greater developer equity.

4. Figures exclude maintenance. The WindPole option includes maintenance. All configurations assume redundant anemometers at three heights (40, 60, and 80m), direction and temperature sensors at two heights, and one barometric-pressure sensor.

5. $7,000 (sensors) + $15,000 (tower) plus installation, shipping, land lease, and permit.

6. $7,000 (sensors) + $75,000 to $95,000 (tower) plus installation, shipping, land lease, and permit.

7. WindPole requires a two-year contract commitment.

8. WindPole is responsible for sensor maintenance and replacement under its “data as a service” model.

9. 6,000 towers are more than 80-m high and 1,500 are more than 100-m high. View WindPole sites at: windpoleventures.com/downloads/WindPole_Towers.kmz

10. Many jurisdictions require building permits and inspections.

WindPole Ventures

Windpoleventures.com

A manufacturer of retaining rings provides them in large sizes, high-carbon steel, and a variety of configurations to retain bearings and other components in wind-turbine assemblies. Wind-power applications for Rotor Clip retaining rings include pitch systems, main shaft bearings, yaw systems, gearbox bearings, generator bearings, and brake equipment.

Four large Rotor Clip retaining rings give an idea of how large the rings can be. Rings can be made up to 1,000-mm dia. to suit the specific requirements of any of the listed applications.

The retaining rings are engineered components with tooling designed by the company’s engineering staff and built by its tool room. All processes are performed in-house including forming the rings according to exacting specifications and heat treating them in our own in-house furnaces. Heat treating is critical because the ring’s performance depends on reaching a pre-determined hardness, which is assured through computerized feeding mechanisms and strict quality-checking procedures. The company is a recognized quality manufacturer holding a TS16949 certification and known globally as a supplier to many of the world’s largest OEM producers.

Rotor Clips

rotorclip.com

SMP choke with mounting plate come in protection class IP66 for inverters in wind turbine installations.

Electrical chokes for inverters in wind turbines are now approved for use in offshore installations. These inductive components from manufacturer SMP feature low losses, low stray fields, and a compact design. The chokes’ cores consist of powder composites engineered for this application.

Direct current from wind turbine generators must be converted into a sinusoidal waveform with the characteristics required by the grid. The converter’s filters, which consist of capacitors and filter chokes, ensure that current being fed into the grid exhibits a near sinusoidal waveform. To maximize the inverter’s efficiency, its components must exhibit low losses. The materials that SMP developed for use in its energy efficient, high-performance chokes have low magnetostriction, and exceptionally low eddy current and hysteresis losses. Their encapsulated design ensures that the power converters emit only low-intensity stray fields, so they do not affect other components. The chokes have a space-saving compact design, are maintenance-free, and have a long lifespan – a significant contribution to cutting the maintenance costs for offshore wind turbines.

To protect components in offshore turbines from the corrosive action of the sea water, it is necessary to use special salt-resistant materials, additional corrosion protection, and a complete encapsulation of certain subassemblies. The company’s inductive components for wind turbine inverters are now certified IP66 and approved for use in offshore installations. Because of their high protection class of IP66, these chokes can be fitted outside the inverters, which means the heat generated by the choke is not discharged inside the inverter. This results in a lower internal inverter temperature, which removes the need for cooling fans and saving energy and installation space. Another advantage to placing the choke outside the inverter, reduces its overall dimensions, which further cuts space and energy demand. To simplify mounting outside inverters, SMP provides the chokes with special mounting fixtures. The choke and the mounting plate are fitted on the device’s outside and the connecting cables pass through a sealed opening.

SMP supplies inductive components for frequencies up to 200 kHz and current ratings up to 1,000 A for use in onshore wind turbines and other applications. Depending on their application, they are constructed either as single-conductor chokes for high-current applications, single-phase individual chokes, three-phase choke modules or LC filters. SMP manufactures all components to customer specifications using in-house developed powder composites. All products are RoHS- and REACH-compliant and the materials used are UL-listed. To allow for a wide range of requirements, components can be made to all common international standards.

Westendorf Associates Inc

westendorfassoc.com

CG Automation, a subsidiary of MSE Power Systems Inc., has acquired ADMS Wind SCADA and wind-turbine-monitoring systems from Second Wind Systems Inc. Combining SCADA with its expertise in utility automation, MSE Power Systems and CG Automation can offer more reliable, interconnections for smart-grid designs.

MSE Power system projects include a 230 kV transmission line in Rincon, Ga.

CG Automation provides automation products and systems to electric utilities and renewable-energy industries. Ownership of Second Wind’s systems complement CG Automation’s portfolio and broadens its services to the renewable energy market. “Combining Second Wind’s ADMS with our XCell Substation Automation products and services will let CG Automation provide wind farm management and interoperability,” said CG Automation CEO Sam Sciacca. “We also see potential applications for this technology in the solar market.”

MSE Power Systems

www.msepower.com

The Han-Yellock connector comes in several sizes with up to thirty 20A connections in one housing. The product also accepts standard modules from the Han-Modular connector series which lets users select many possible terminations for a range of applications.

The recent Han-Yellock connector series is the result of several years of market feedback. The connector design is aesthetically pleasing yet effective in harsh environments. The product combines many features in one connector, most noticeably a new integral lock which uses a patented push button, a departure from existing lever designs for latching and unlatching rectangular connectors. The product allows for simple installation as well as a method for locking the product simply by turning one of the push buttons 90°, thus reducing the chance for unauthorized access without the use of a tool.

The appearance of this industrial product was conceived with electrical designers in mind. The product saves applied cost and reduces wiring time by incorporating several new features, such as:

• Pre-wired modules may be installed into the connector body from the front or back and without fixing screws. This simplifies and shortens installation time.
• Combining potentials and contacts into the connector provides functions formerly reserved for terminal blocks. This saves space, reduces wiring time, and eliminates potential wiring errors.
• The product uses a single gender crimp contact design which eliminates the need for inventory and processing of male and female contacts.

Harting

harting.com

Finite-element analysis shows stress gradients for a retaining ring in an application with insufficient edge margin. When loaded, the high-stress region extends over the entire groove wall to the shaft end (or housing end) distorting the groove wall. Under these conditions, the ring would buckle, possibly leading to catastrophic failure.

The manufacturer of retaining rings, hose clamps, and related products recently published formulae on its website (www.rotorclip.com/formulas.php) for determining thrust loads and tolerances, and avoiding costs associated with over-estimating application requirements.

Maximum allowable thrust load capacities for all retaining rings are given in the manufacturer’s technical manual. Design engineers can use this information to determine if their application requires a ring suited for withstanding thrust loads or static retention. There is no need to design in one type when another will do at a lower cost.

For example, consider an assembly onto which components must be fastened in a bore or housing 0.750-in. dia. A self-locking retaining ring, which does not need a groove, provides 66 lb of static thrust-load capacity. An external retaining ring for the same application installed in a soft groove provides 1,200-lb static-load capacity with a safety factor of two. If the application’s load capacity is 66 lb or less, the self-locking ring presents the most economical and effective approach to meeting the fastener requirement.

Rotor Clip Company Inc.

www.rotorclip.com

A manufacturer of passive components has expanded its offering of multilayer ceramic capacitors to provide high-capacitance values at temperatures up to 150ºC. Designated the X8L Series, the high temperature MLCC (Multilayer Ceramic Capacitors) range has an elevated capacitance performance at temperatures to accommodate applications in harsh environments.

The X8L capacitors deliver a CV of 0.47µF/25V in a 0805 package, a comparable X8R device is rated at 0.22µF/25V. The series extends the voltage availability from 50V (X8R) to 100V.

“Like the X8R Series, the new, high capacitance X8L MLCCs are AEC-Q200-qualified making them for automotive applications including under the hood systems. In the industrial market, they can also be used as bulk capacitors for temperature sensing modules as well as control units,” said AVX product marketing manager Tim Piver.

Both series are RoHS-compliant and feature low-loss performance and temperature stability. X8R capacitors show a capacitance variation of ±15% between -55 to 150ºC, while X8L products have a variation of ±15% from -55 to 125ºC and 15/-40% from +125 to +150ºC. Absolute capacitance varies with temperature.

Optional terminations include a patented Flexiterm, which ensures component reliability by preventing damage caused by thermal cycling and mechanical flexing. Conductive epoxy terminations for hybrid applications are available.

AVX Corporation

www.avx.com.

Laser engraved torque chart on the nose of the tool means no more searching for paper pressure charts.

The SD-Series is a range of square drive, hydraulic torque wrenches. The one piece body housing offers rigidity, strength, and durability in a lightweight form. The series torque output ranges from 1,722 Nm (1,270 ft-lb) to a staggering 78,625 Nm (58,000 ft-lb). The series from Tentec offers a selection of options such as reaction arms, which guarantee a reaction-point solution no matter how unusual the bolted application. Most reaction arms feature a sturdy “release button” built within the reaction arm housing and replaceable wear pads. A few other features include:

• Reaction arm release button, protected within the reaction arm housing
• Replaceable wear pad protects the reaction arm.
• Long reaction arm allows for reaction on most applications
• “Push through” square drive allows switching from loosen to tighten
• Anti-backlash mechanism provides hands-free operation

Wind Turbine Tools Inc

windturbinetools.com