Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Wind Turbine Development from 1945 to 1970
During the twenty-ive years from 1945 to 1970, new growth in wind turbine tech-
nology took place principally in western Europe and at a very modest pace. Some of the
research and development activities during this period are described in the following
sections, according to the country in which they took place.
Denmark
Pre-World War II wind turbine development in Europe took place principally in Den-
mark under the direction of Poul LaCour (called by many “the Danish Edison”) and his
protege, Johannes Juul [Juul 1964]. Denmark, a country lacking in indigenous energy
sources, utilized wind power to a signiicant degree during both World Wars when oil
supplies were curtailed. With the onset of the World War II occupation the
F. L. Smidth
Company
(F.L.S.) developed a series of wind turbines in the 45-kW range. Wind power
eventually produced 4 million kilowatt-hours annually during this period.
The principal product line of F.L.S. was concrete manufacturing equipment; hence the
use of concrete towers on the F.L.S. machines and the continued propensity for many years
for the towers of larger Danish wind turbines to be built of concrete. Initially, rotors were
of the two-bladed coniguration, but F.L.S. (like the Jacobs brothers in the U.S. in the '20s)
soon switched to three blades to alleviate tower vibration problems. Generally, DC genera-
tors were installed, since portions of outlying areas in Denmark were still supplied by small
DC grids at that time.
The relative success of the small-scale F.L.S. wind power plants led to further experi-
ments with larger machines in the years immediately following the end of World War II.
With the help of Marshall Plan funding and the design experience of Juul, a 200-kW, 24-
meter diameter wind turbine was installed during 1956-57 on the island of Gedser in the
far southeast of Denmark (Fig. 3-1). Like its smaller predecessors, the
Gedser wind turbine
had a three-bladed rotor located upwind of a concrete tower. It supplied AC power to the
local utility, Sydﾭstsjaellands Elektricitets Aktieselskab (SEAS), from 1958 until 1967.
Capacity factors
(
i.e.
, ratios of annual energy output to rated power times 8760 hr) of 20
percent were achieved in some years.
Research on medium- and large-scale wind energy development was discontinued in
Denmark in the mid-'60s, but in the mid-1970s the simplicity, ruggedness, and reliability
of the Gedser wind turbine provided valuable lessons to Danish engineers who responded
to new demands for alternative energy generation. In 1977 the machine was refurbished,
equipped with modern instrumentation, and operated intermittently for research purposes
[Merriam 1977, Lundsager
et al.
1980]. Tests of aerodynamic performance and structural
loads were successfully conducted. Modern, commercially-successful Danish wind turbines
owe much to the pioneering work of F.L.S.
France
During the period from 1958 to 1964, three large-scale HAWTs were built and tested
in France by
Electricité de France
(EDF), in collaboration with two companies:
BEST
and
Neyrpic
[Bonneille 1974]. The irst turbine was called the
Type Best-Romani
and was
erected at Nogent-le-Roi near Paris. Its three-bladed rotor had a diameter of 30 m, and the
system rating was 800 kW at a wind speed of 16 m/s. It operated for ive years, from 1958
to 1963, connected to the EDF network. There were some dificulties with gear lubrication,
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