IN DEPTH: Wind's new driving force

Mitsubishi's 7MW SeaAngel, one of the contenders in the future 'mega-turbine' stakes

MPSE

By Darius Snieckus in Bristol

 Friday, March 08 2013

The industrial running battle between gearbox-based wind turbine drivetrains and their direct-drive competitors has a new front line.

That head-to-head led to a schism among designers working on the next generation of ultra-large turbines.

Now, groundbreaking hydraulic-based systems — which streamline drivetrain architecture by doing away with the gearbox, frequency converter and transformer — are gaining ground.

Mitsubishi is trialling a prototype of a pioneering “digital-displacement” version to power its 7MW SeaAngel offshore turbine.

The Japanese heavyweight is not alone in believing that hydraulic transmissions — long a favourite of car makers and manufacturers of gargantuan industrial machinery — will take a large slice of the future market for drivetrains in 7-15MW…

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