ecoPower designs, manufactures, and services Floating Wind Turbines™ for Floating Windfarms-at-Sea™ to generate ‘green’ electricity at low-costs from the strong wind at sea, over shallow and deep waters.
Floating Wind Turbines and Their Advantages -- The Floating Wind Turbines™ are cost effective "soft" wind turbines mounted on submerged floating platforms (patents being applied), where the "soft" wind turbines will include (1) unidirectional vertical axis wind turbines "Floating-VAWT™" (See Exhibit 3a); and (2) horizontal axis downwind turbines that will follow and bend with the wind "Floating-HADT™". (See Exhibit 3b) Their advantages are:
- They use ‘soft’ and lighter wind turbines, which require less material and, thus, cost less to manufacture.
- These ‘soft’ wind turbines can be placed on floating platforms to harness the strong wind at sea, over shallow and deep waters;
- They can be built mainly with composite materials that are much lighter than steel and corrosion-free.
- They will be designed with technological improvements in six different areas to: increase their energy efficiency; reduce their costs of manufacturing and installation; and lower their costs of repairs and maintenance.
- They will be designed in such a way that they can be mass produced in low- cost shipyards to further reduce their costs.
- They can be towed to the offshore windfarm sites, readily anchored and connected to the power grids, avoiding the delays and high costs of offshore foundations and installation; and
- They can be towed back to shipyards for repairs and maintenance, avoiding the danger and high costs of offshore repairs and maintenance.
Installing them in large-scale windfarms at sea with strong winds, these Floating Wind Turbines™ can potentially reduce the costs of electricity from wind at sea to less than those from coal-fired power plants.
Implementing Modern Technologies -- ecoPower designs the Floating Wind Turbines in the U.S. and implements the modern technologies that include:
- Modern computational mechanics for analyzing the stability, load, resonance, stress concentration, and fatigue of ‘soft’ wind turbines on submerged floating platforms;
- Modern computational fluid mechanics for rotating airfoils, to increase their energy efficiency, and for the supporting towers, to minimize their wake effects;
- Advanced composites for light ‘soft’ offshore wind turbines and submerged floating platforms;
- Variable speed generators and newly developed direct-drive generators;
- Modern power electronics;
- Modern offshore platform and anchoring technologies; and
- Satellite mapping of wind velocities at sea.
A 500 kW Floating-VAWT™
ecoPower is designing a 500 kW Floating-VAWT™ that integrates a 500 kW VAWT with a floating platform, which is anchored to the sea floor (see Exhibit 3b). This eliminates the need for expensive foundations and installations.
The 500 kW VAWT is an improved and expanded version of the 300 kW VAWT jointly developed by FloWind Corporation and Sandia National Laboratory in 1984. It was the largest and most cost-effective wind turbine at that time. For their contributions, FloWind and Sandia National Laboratory jointly received the top national award for energy innovation for 1984 from the US Department of Energy. FloWind installed an operated more than 500 of these 100kW and 300kW VAWTs in two windfarms in California. Many of these low cost VAWTs had operated in these wind farms for over 20 years. Dr. Pao, a member of the National Academy of Engineering USA, is the founder of FloWind and ecoPower. Dr. Pao also served as the CEO of FloWind from 1981 to 1986.
The 500 kW Floating VAWT™ can be assembled in low-cost boat yards on shore; towed to site at sea;erected at sea; and quickly anchored and connected to the power grid for electricity generation. It can also be quickly disconnected from the power grid and anchors, and towed back to boat yards for repairs and maintenance. These design features will enable us to avoid the high costs of assembly, installation, repairs, and maintenance at sea!
In case of typhoon or hurricane, the 500 kW Floating-VAWT™ can be tilted down and pulled underwater to avoid the strong impacts from the gusty wind and high waves.
In a strong region at sea with annual mean wind velocity of 9.5 meters per second, it is estimated that a 500 kW Floating-VAWT™ can generate 1.8 million kWh of electricity per year.
We expect to increase its annual production of electricity through further technology improvements.
ecoPower also plans to develop floating horizontal axis downwind turbines ("Floating-HADT"™).
Exhibit - 3a
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Exhibit - 3b
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