Ingenieur Vol. 75 ingenieur July 2018-FA | Page 81
‟
Renewable energy – including wind, solar and hydropower –
was the fastest growing energy source worldwide in 2017
was working on a “10-plus.” It expects to have a
prototype ready by 2020 and to start installing
them in wind farms by 2022.
But it was GE that made the biggest splash
when it announced plans for a 12-megawatt
turbine in March. Known as the Haliade-X, it would
stand nearly three times as tall as the Statue of
Liberty and harness wind with blades that sweep
an area the size of seven football fields. If it were
to be installed on a typical German North Sea site,
GE estimates the machine could generate enough
power to supply 16,000 European households.
The Challenges
Indeed, the companies building ever-larger
turbines all acknowledge that building a more
powerful turbine is more difficult than just making
the tower taller or the blades longer.
How do you safely and quickly move turbine
blades the length of soccer fields? Will cranes
and ships need to be redesigned to handle bigger
turbine towers? How soon can new factories and
other infrastructure be built in emerging markets?
Rahul Yarala, executive director of the Wind
Technology Testing Centre, a massive, hangar-
like facility in Boston where wind blades are put
through their paces, says one big question is
whether blades can be built in segments instead
of as a single piece.
That, he says, would make them easier to
transport, but engineers would need to ensure
that the assembled blades were sturdy enough to
handle the stress of turning in potent winds.
Companies are also working to make the
turbines as smart, and digitally adjustable, as
possible, so that workers can remotely change the
pitch of a blade to catch more wind or diagnose
and fix problems without having to make costly,
time-consuming trips offshore.
“The heart of any system is the control
system,” says Danielle Merfeld, chief technology
officer at GE Renewable Energy. “If you build those
algorithms right you have essentially increased the
IQ of your turbines.”
A blade for an 8-megawatt wind turbine is
installed at a wind farm in Liverpool Bay, U.K.
BRAD PLUMER
Rising Carbon Emissions
Energy-efficiency slowed down, emissions rose in
Asia, and coal use rebounded slightly last year.
Roughly two-thirds of last year’s emissions
increase came from Asia, where fast-growing
countries like China, India and Indonesia continue
to rely heavily on fossil fuels as they lift themselves
out of poverty.
The jump in Asian emissions overshadowed
cuts made elsewhere in the world: The US, for
instance, reduced its emissions 0.5% last year,
driven by the growing deployment of renewable
energy. Britain, Mexico and Japan also managed
to cut their emissions.
Renewable energy – including wind, solar and
hydropower – was the fastest growing energy
source worldwide in 2017. China alone installed
as many solar panels last year as the entire solar
capacity of France and Germany combined. And,
the prices for renewable technologies keep falling.
Last year’s “unprecedented” growth in
renewables, the IEA said, satisfied only about
one-qua