New wind turbine now in South Africa

With half the parts of a conventional geared wind turbine and less than half the number of moving parts, the new wind turbine is said to require less maintenance and increase profitability for customers.

According to Tom Pederson, head of Siemens Wind Power for Africa and Middle East, the main target for the new machine is to reduce complexity in order to increase reliability and profitability.

Compact, robust and efficient

The model features a new, gearless drive train design with a compact, synchronous generator, including permanent magnets. The main advantage of permanent magnet generators is their simple and robust design that requires no excitation power, slip rings or excitation control systems. This leads to high efficiency even at low loads. The generator of the first prototype machine, which was installed in Denmark in 2009, was produced by the Large Drives Business Unit within the Siemens Industry Sector.

One of the biggest advantages of the new machine is its compact design. With a length of 6.9m and a diameter of only 4.2 meter, the nacelle (which consists of the generator, gearbox, drive train and brake assembly) can be transported using standard vehicles commonly available in most major markets. The nacelle of the new model weighs only 73 tons because the number of parts has radically been reduced. The diameter of the rotor is 101 meter.

"The performance of the first prototype, which was installed more than a year ago, has been excellent," says Pederson.
"Since then the zero-series with up to 10 SWT-3.0-101 wind turbines have been installed in various parts of the world with commercial serial production commencing earlier this year with a controlled ramp-up programme. Not only has this reduced the risks for customers, but it has also boosted the reliability and profitability of our technology."