Technology
European Commission (EC) has also recognised those difficulties, leading President Ursula von der Leyen to announce a European Wind Power Action Plan that the EC says will ensure the energy transition goes “hand-in-hand with industrial competitiveness”.
Among the difficulties, according to the EC, are insufficient and uncertain demand; slow and complex permitting; lack of access to raw materials; high inflation and commodity prices; unsupportive design of national tenders; increased pressure from international competitors; and risks to the availability of a skilled workforce – an ominous list on the face of it. It’s plan, though, welcomed as a “game-changer”
by WindEurope, includes six action points: increased predictability and faster permitting; supporting member states to improve their auction design; the introduction of an innovation fund to speed up investment and financing; continued monitoring of potentially unfair trade practices from international competitors, taking action where necessary; a renewed focus on developing skills; and engagement with the sector to develop an EU Wind Charter to improve the enabling conditions for the industry to remain competitive. But right now the sector is sluggish, as Jonas
Wahlström, head of product management at ABB’s wind division, can attest to. Branding today’s market “very slow”, he says it takes a long time between decisions being made and the construction and eventual commencement of commercial operation – a nod to the comments made by the EC.
Big challenge, smaller solution Aside from the current climate, wind is a market with great potential – one that ABB is eager to support. However, Wahlström accepts that costs for materials, as an example, have risen and this may be impacting decisions made by the industry and ABB’s customers. It’s a proposition that isn’t without merit – after all, as wind turbines have got bigger, so too has the amount of raw materials required to build them. Highlighting this fact, the UK’s first conventional offshore wind farm – situated off the North Wales coast – boasted 2MW turbines; in 2023 the North Sea Dogger Bank wind farm, which when completed will be the world’s largest offshore facility at 3.6GW, is home to GE’s Haliade-X turbine. Standing at a quarter of a kilometre above the water’s surface, each of these turbines have an energy capacity of 13MW. Wahlström believes part of the solution – and indeed the natural progression of components – to reducing costs is to optimise the integral parts of these increasingly large turbines. This, he argues, is where medium-voltage (MV) wind converters can
World Wind Technology /
www.worldwind-technology.com
thrive. MV wind converters, with typical voltage ranges of 3.3kV to 6.6kV, is an area that ABB has been working in since the 1980s, being one of the first developers for both wind and industrial applications. Today, as wind turbines grow, and with the next generation expected to reach energy capacities of at least 20MW, MV wind converters are set to become increasingly integral for power conversion. They are an eye-catching alternative to low-voltage (LV) systems being used, helping to reduce currents and losses in generators, converters and cables. Although LV converters have been used in large offshore turbines, they pose challenges when used on some of today’s largest models. They increase the need for power components and ultimately the cost of turbines themselves, thanks to the larger size and weight of the nacelle, and come with concerns surrounding reliability in general.
MV wind converters, such as those provided by ABB, possess typical voltage ranges of 3.3–6.6kV and help reduce currents and losses in generators, converters and cables.
“The fewer components you have, the more likely it is that nothing will fail, and the more possible it is to make a very compact and light converter.”
It is, therefore, arguably the age of the MV wind converter. With the ability to help reduce size, weight and cabling, they provide higher operating voltages – meaning the drivetrain can work at lower currents, thus reducing the costs of cabling, switchgears and other components in the drivetrain. Wahlström says that for ABB, although it does manufacture a catalogue of other converters, both LV and MV, a 3.3kV converter currently ticks all the boxes; providing optimal performance while using the fewest components possible. ABB’s MV wind converters also feature high- efficiency integrated gate-commutated thyristor (IGCT) technology. Originally developed by ABB, IGCT helps control high electric current and
13MW The energy
capacity of GE’s Haliade-X turbines in the Dogger Bank wind farm
in the North Sea. GE
25
ABB
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41
