Eliminating Uncertainty with Sodar
As the wind energy matures, project developers and financiers are asking for more-accurate predictions of power performance. Remote sensing systems including sonic detection and...
A Greener Wind Farm
The desire for more efficient, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly power generation continues to grow exponentially. Recently the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) published a...
Thinking Outside the Gearbox
The wind industry is currently moving at an incredible pace, despite restrictions mainly having to do with legislative issues. As with anything else, however,...
Torque Certification Marks Maintenance Advances
When people think about windpower generation, the first thought usually extends to the blade cutting through the breeze, the aerodynamic turbine capsule, or the...
Laser Measurement for Tower Flanges
As any wind professional knows, the towers supporting massive turbines are far more complicated than they might appear from the ground, requiring incredibly precise...
Concrete Proof: The Majestic Wind Farm
As of January 2009 Texas is the nation’s number-one producer in megawatts of installed utility-scaled wind power, with a total of 7,116 megawatts. As...
Optimizing Design to Maximize Profitability
Wind energy has the potential to make a major contribution toward solving the world’s energy problems, but it faces significant obstacles in improving its...
The Mobile Age of Service Technology
An attentive car owner knows his vehicle so intimately that he can easily sense when something isn’t quite right. Whether it’s a small noise...
Fastening Technology for Tower Integrity
Wind turbines are awe-inspiring machines. Rising hundreds of feet into the sky, with their blades spinning majestically, they make a humming sound that I...
Big Gears for Big Wind
New maintenance services and technologies are constantly being introduced into the wind industry, because a primary concern involves the longevity of towers and related...
Plate Rolling for Wind Towers
With the available and untapped wind resources in the United States, wind power is all but guaranteed to be a boon to its economy...
Specialty Lubricants for Optimum Operation
Wind turbines have seen rapid development during the past few years, and lubricants are of particular importance in this context. Lubricants play a vital...
A Case for Wind Farm Construction
This paper presents a general interest construction topic and introduces the unique techniques used to manage and construct a wind turbine electricity farm that...
Links in the Wind Supply Chain
Current economic conditions, rising energy prices, demand and supply uncertainties, and multiple environmental concerns are driving the United States to rethink its energy portfolio...
Shifting Political Winds Usher in Opportunities
When the American Clean Energy and Security Act was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in late June, it was trumpeted as one...
Getting Smart about Wind and Demand Response
Variability and uncertainty have been an inherent part of managing the power system since Westinghouse and Edison built the first central station power plants...
Wind Drive Train Ride-Through Performance
As wind turbines become a significant part of our electrical generation capacity, it is increasingly important that the performance of the wind turbine is...
Wind Turbine Gearbox Durability
The reliability of wind turbines is a major issue for the industry. Wind turbine failures can be extremely costly in terms of repair costs,...
Brushing Up on Turbine Generator Maintenance
From the piercing cold of Mongolia to the oppressive desert heat of the American West, wind turbine generators are subjected to extremely harsh environments,...
Avoiding Shocks to the System
To a thunderstorm a wind tower appears as a lightning rod, meaning that generators are highly susceptible to the effects of lightning. They are...
