Foundation equipment manufacturer BAUER Maschinen GmbH, a member of the BAUER Group of Germany, was awarded the contract for supplying its Flydrill System BFD 5500 to Marine Projects International Ltd (MPI), together with full technical supervision and operational support for the installation of monopile foundations for the Barrow Offshore Wind Farm site in the East Irish Sea. In this article, the authors describe the system and project.

The article describes work to investigate the effects on tower dynamics when mounting a turbine on a monopile foundation offshore compared to a similar onshore installation. Changes in frequency, mode shapes and damping were investigated, including effects of hydrodynamics and non-linear soil properties. The tool used for the investigation is the new aeroelastic code HAWC2, which is based on a multibody formulation. This formulation is very general, which means that it can handle any structural object (body) as well as large rotations between the bodies and their associated non-linear effects. Thus, for example, complex foundation types such as very flexible monopile foundations, tripod structures and even floating support structures can be simulated in the code.

Motivated by the growing installation of wind energy systems all over the world and with the perspective of wind energy utilisation in Brazil, the authors present a simplified model to evaluate the optimum aerodynamic configuration for the rotor blades of a horizontal axis wind turbine (HAWT). The model is based on the conservation equations and the Panel Method, and a limited set of geometric parameters that strongly affect the rotor aerodynamics are calculated.

By Daniel Fonseca de Carvalho e Silva, Luiz Henrique Gomes Pereira and Gustavo C.R. Bodstein, Brazil

The world’s wind resources are huge. But as wind becomes a larger fraction of electricity generation, grid integration must be resolved, particularly to smooth fluctuations in wind power output. Adding energy storage or back-up has been proposed as a solution, but dedicated storage or back-up adds capital cost to wind power. This article proposes vehicle-to-grid power (V2G) as a storage resource for large-scale wind power.

By Willett Kempton and Amardeep Dhanju, University of Delaware, USA

The introduction of the Multibrid M5000 solution has meant a significant step in the development of new wind energy converter systems for the future. Now, going from prototypes to series production, Multibrid in Germany sees further possibilities. The company recognises that cooperation with good suppliers can add further benefits.

By Ulf Petersson, Roxtec International, Sweden