A floating wind turbine platform developed by Mingyang Group is now sited at a Chinese language offshore wind farm. OceanX, at current the world’s largest single capability expertise of its sort, is supporting the 505-MW Yangjiang Mingyang Quingzhou IV venture close to Guangdong, China.
Mingyang on August 19 introduced the platform had accomplished its 191-nautical-mile journey from Guangzhou to the wind farm off the coast of Guangdong Province. The corporate mentioned the floating wind turbine platform is organized in a “V” form, and holds two 8.3-MW offshore wind generators. The corporate mentioned the platform is designed to work “in a variety of sea areas world wide with water depth of greater than 35 meters.”
The OceanX impeller reaches 219 meters at its highest level, with a most width of about 369 meters within the air. Your entire wind turbine platform has a complete displacement of 15,000 tonnes, and a towing draft of 5.5 meters. The platform as soon as operational is predicted to supply 54 million kWh yearly.
Mingyang earlier this month introduced it has an settlement to put in wind generators at a venture in Brazil, marking its first foray into Latin America. The corporate is among the many Chinese language producers driving the worldwide wind turbine market.
Excessive-Tech, Excessive-Efficiency Supplies
Mingyang in a information launch wrote, “OceanX advances wind turbine innovation by enhancing core part expertise, driving each aesthetic and purposeful refinement in design and manufacturing,” including, “Floating basis is the important thing part for floating wind generators within the deep and distant sea. Not like conventional metal floating foundations, OceanX’s floating basis consists of three floats, concrete arms and connectors.”
The group mentioned the platform “pioneers using ultra-high-performance concrete with a compressive power exceeding 115 MPa for floating basis building, a cloth 4 occasions stronger than commonplace concrete, considerably enhancing load-bearing capability. The floating basis additionally makes use of a pre-stressed high-strength concrete meeting construction, facilitating modular and batched manufacturing, thereby considerably decreasing building prices.”
Mingyang is utilizing caisson pre-tensioning expertise in its precast concrete building, and has emphasised interface sealing and the precision of the pre-stressing course of. The group mentioned there are “1,500 metal strands expertly threaded by means of the floating physique’s arm,” including that the platform “has meticulously managed tensioning forces and ensured uniform stress throughout the top face all through the development.”
OceanX’s float design makes use of layered materials to exchange conventional metal or hybrid supplies; Mingyang mentioned that “lightens the floats and accommodates their curved type. The three streamlined ellipsoidal floats supply lowered wave resistance and allow lateral rotation, offering yawing energy. Rigorous testing confirms that the streamlined form strikes a perfect steadiness between stability and load-bearing.” The corporate additionally mentioned that placing two wind generators on a single floating platform “can considerably minimize down the per-kilowatt price, in addition to cut back the required sea space and operational upkeep bills.”
Pioneering Structure
Mingyang mentioned integrating two turbine towers in a “V” configuration is a primary for offshore wind platforms. OceanX’s tower, with an elongated elliptical design, maximizes wind publicity alongside its longer axis, considerably exceeding that on the shorter axis. The corporate mentioned, “By aligning the tower with the wind path at an optimum angle, the wind platform’s space is successfully elevated, permitting for swifter alignment to the wind and boosting the effectivity of wind power seize. Moreover, the towers are fitted with a dual-access system for lifts and ladders, guaranteeing the consolation and security of personnel throughout ascent and descent.”
Mingyang additionally mentioned the expertise’s cable-stayed system is the primary of its type. “OeanX has ingeniously harnessed the spatial framework of its tower system, integrating the world’s largest high-stress strand cable-stayed system. A strong community of 13 predominant and 6 auxiliary cables effectively tensions the mainframe, tower, and floating basis, establishing a secure tensioning mechanism throughout the wind turbine’s parts. This modern cable-stayed design has redefined the load switch path of conventional wind generators. As a substitute of the tower bearing the complete impeller and gravity hundreds, the system distributes the tower’s gravity load to the stress cables, with the tower now solely partially supporting the impeller hundreds. This strategic redistribution considerably lightens the tower’s load, enabling a streamlined and light-weight structural design.”
Ocean X makes use of a mix of graded pre-tensioning, multi-dimensional monitoring, and synchronized tensioning in its system, which the corporate mentioned “ensures that each one 13 predominant cables obtain their particular person pre-tensioning specs.” The group mentioned the cables—that are 200 meters lengthy, with an 18-centimeter diameter—”may be pre-tensioned to a most pressure of 350 tonnes, optimizing the structural integrity and efficiency of the wind turbine system.”
The 2 predominant engines on the V-shaped tower are geared up with parallel impellers, with a sweeping space of greater than 52,000 sq. meters. The impeller blades’ suggestions are simply 5 meters aside. Mingyang mentioned “this pioneering design optimizes impeller pitch and wind effectivity whereas leveraging the V-shape of the tower. It ensures impeller security and enhances each wind seize and structural stability.”
The impellers rotate in reverse instructions at startup, which reinforces wind pace within the central space. Mingyang mentioned this will increase electrical energy era from air kinetic power by 4.29% in comparison with a single, giant turbine with an equal swept space.
Single-Level Mooring
OceanX makes use of a downwind design, assuaging tower headroom constraints for the blades, permitting higher motion, and enhancing the unit’s energy era effectivity by means of versatile and environment friendly wind power seize, based on Mingyang. The corporate mentioned that the platform’s design takes under consideration the potential of typhoon-force winds.
“Within the face of utmost storm situations, floating wind generators have to be designed to resist 360° storm hundreds from the outset to make sure stability and security,” mentioned Mingyang. “OceanX employs a single-point mooring system, which permits the platform to adaptively yaw with the storm’s path. This ensures that the wind turbine constantly faces the incoming wind, whatever the storm’s path.”
Mingyang mentioned a 1:10 scale prototype of the OceanX dual-rotor floating wind turbine platform was launched for testing functions in Lake Quarry, Germany, in April 2020. By October of that yr, it had accomplished a two-month offshore operation within the Baltic Sea, enduring checks equal to 72m/s winds and 30-meter waves, and earned a feasibility certificates from DNV, a world power analysis and certification group.
—Darrell Proctor is senior editor for POWER (@POWERmagazine).
