LUBRICANTS
FEATURE SPONSOR
COST, QUALITY AND CONTROL: HOW LUBRICANT SUPPLIERS ARE HELPING TO REDUCE THE COST OF WIND ENERGY PRODUCTION
It is widely acknowledged that one of the biggest issues dominating the wind power industry at the moment is cost of production.
According to the World Wind Energy Association, wind energy provided over 2.5 percent of total worldwide electricity usage in 2010, and some organisations predict that global wind power market penetration is expected to reach 3.35 percent by 2013 and 8 percent by 2018. However, if wind is ever to become a truly mainstream power source, the truth is that it needs to become cheaper to produce.
THE IMPORTANCE OF LUBRICANTS Given the cost of adding and changing lubricants, in addition to the effect a lubricant can have on the overall efficiency and life expectancy of a wind turbine, quality control processes can have a substantial impact on the total cost of running a wind farm.
QUALITY AND CONTROL
Quality and control are crucial to reducing cost – this is not a question of simply sourcing the cheapest suppliers, it’s about understanding which lubricants to use and how best to use them to ensure your turbine runs as efficiently as possible throughout its life cycle. The industry is seeing some interesting changes when it comes to the use of lubricants within gearbox operated turbines, all of which have the potential to tackle these issues.
OIL CHANGES
Changing the oil or lubricant in a wind turbine is not an easy task. The service technician must get to the top of a 100ft- 300ft tower, while the product is raised in a pail or pumped up via hoses – whilst the used oil has to be removed using the same methods. To do this the turbine must be shut down, stopping production until the oil change is complete, which can take anything from a few hours to 1 – 2 days.
It’s easy to see the advantages that longer service intervals and fewer oil changes offer the operator - less downtime, increased production and as a result, cost savings. There is a trend in the wind industry at the moment towards condition-based oil changes, so the lubricant is changed only when it has had sufficient wear and tear, rather than being changed at regular, pre- defined intervals regardless of its condition.
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www.windenergynetwork.co.uk
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