Brandon Mueller

Kevin Armitage
ISE 399B
June 30, 2014
Everything You Need to Know About Wind Turbines
The past:
The idea of the wind energy started out as early as 5000 B.C. where boats along the river Nile
were pushed along using sails. By 200 B.C. the Chinese had wind mills that were pumping
water. There were even wind mills made of woven reeds grinding grain in the Middle East. (3)
By the 11th century, the Middle East had advanced it will mill technology for food production
and merchants took this technology to Europe where it was used to drain marshes and later to
pump water in the new world. (3)
The first wind turbine for electricity was built in July of 1887 by Professor James Blyth in
Glasgow, Scotland. Professor James Blyth was born April 1839 in Marykirk, Kincardineshire. It
is here that he was educated at Montrose Academy and won a scholarship for college. After he
obtained his BA from the University of Edinburgh, he went on to Mathematics at a different
University (16). He earned his master degree in 1871 and was appointed Freeland Professor of
Natural Philosophy in 1880. This is where he started his research into wind turbine research (16).
The professor struggled with offering his surplus electricity to locals as they thought of it as the
work of the devil (16). James Blyth trailed with three different designs, the third one which he
would use to power his home for 20 years. (1)
Later that year Professor Charles F. Brush invented a wind turbine that produced 12kw and had
144 rotor blades (1). Charles F. Brush was an American inventor who was the first person to
have electricity in Cleveland, Ohio, because he built his wind turbine in his backyard. This
turbine stood 60 feet tall and weighed 80,000 pounds (17). This turbine was weak by todays
standards, but this was more than enough to supply Charles mansion with the power it needed to
light the 350 bulbs inside (17).

Figure 1: Picture of a 144 blade wind turbine made by American inventor Charles Brush, 1888.
(4)
At the turn of the 20th century, wind turbines were becoming a solution to rural energy needs.
Scientist Poul la Cour started experimenting with wind turbines in a bid for energy needs in rural
Denmark (1). Poul la Cour is well known as Denmarks greatest inventor. Obtaining his master's
in meteorology in 1869, he would become a deputy director for a Meteorological Institute.
Experiments were actually aimed at self-sufficiency for farmers in the local area as he wanted to
promote independence. Poul la Cour is also credited with inventing the Kratostaten, a
mechanical device that turns irregular motion into regular motion, and the Poul la Cour key, an
electrical device that regulates the power generated by wind turbines (18). Poul la Cour founded
the Society of Wind Electricians and discovered that wind turbines with three blades instead of
144 blades were more efficient, this is the number of blades that we use today (1). Unfortunately
Poul la Cour had problems trying to find a way to store the energy he produced, a problem today
still. Poul la Cour experimented with Hydrogen, using electrolysis to produce hydrogen and the
burning the hydrogen later for energy (18).
During the 1920s the first eggbeater windmill (the Darrieus turbine) was made and later
patented by George Darrieus. It was often called the eggbeater due to its two or three blades that
resembled an eggbeaters design (1). By 1931 in the Yelta, USSR a modern wind turbine was
built that generated 100kW. This design was important because it output 32% of its potential
output, to put that into perspective, a percentage that is comparable to todays wind turbine
efficiency (1).
During the 1930s it was estimated that there were a total of 600,000 wind mills worldwide that
provided rural locations with the electricity and water pumping that they needed (5).

Figure 2: A wind mill as was used in the early 1900s, the energy from one of these was enough
to pump water from underground wells and even power a house. (19)
In 1941, the worlds first megawatt wind turbine was built in Vermont. This turbine had 75 foot
blades and weighed a total of 240 tons (1). Engineer Palmer Cosslett Putnam decided to try and
build such a turbine because he personally found the high electric costs at his summer house to
be annoying (21). Palmer however knew that the area experienced a nice ocean breeze and would
be a good place for a wind turbine. In 1939 he proposed a design for a two blade turbine to the S.
Morgan Smith Company, which manufactured hydraulic turbines (21). A 2000 foot tall mountain
near Castleton, Vermont was chosen as the location for the turbine, which was made to withstand
115 hour per hour winds and light a total of 12,500 one hundred watt light bulbs. On October 19,
1941 the turbine was turned on only to fail in 1943 (21).
1956 in Gedser, Denmark, Johannes Juuls wing turbine called the Gedser turbine was erected.
Johannes Juul was an engineer for a local power plant in Haslev (22). He started his full scale
experiments in 1951 with the Vester Egesbord turbine, a duel blade 11 kW turbine. His design of
the three bladed wind mill in 1953 became the industry standard as it proved to be an economical
form of energy. One of Juuls most impressive achievements is what he was about to do by
reconstructing a wind turbine on the island of Bogo (22). The old turbine had generated 114 kWh
per meter squared that it swept, but Juuls modifications increased this number five times, up to
610 kWh per meter squared. This is impressive because no other turbine in the world was able to
reach these kind of numbers until the 1980s, when fiberglass blades and computer technology
where introduced to turbine design (22). Turbines today incorporate one of Juuls own
inventions, the emergency aerodynamic tip break (1). These breaks are at the tips of each of
the blades and when activated twist the tips of the blades to counteract the motion of the blades,
causing them to slow down and stop. (1)

During the 1970s, the United States government and NASA started major research into wind
power. The energy crisis of the 1970s was caused by increased consumption and an oil embargo
on the United States. President Nixon decided to set up a federal team to explore renewable
energy, and then transfer that research to private companies (23). Cooperating with engineers
from Denmark, NASA was able to come up with the "Viterna & Corrigan" or "the Viterna
method." This analytical model found the relationship between wind speed and energy, to which
the international community showed little belief in (23). However today the model is widely
accepted and is an important tool for wind turbine designers today. A total of thirteen different
turbine designs lead to many of the breakthroughs that enable the multiple megawatt turbines we
have today (1).

Figure 3: The first wind turbine experiment by NASA, Plum Brook Station in Sandusky, Ohio
(23)
By 1980 the worlds first wind farm was built in New Hampshire. This farm consisted of only
twenty turbines, but it was the first time multiple turbines were places in the same area.
Unfortunately the farm failed as the turbines broke down and the amount of wind in the area was
overestimated as the turbines didnt generate as much as anticipated (1). However Kenetech, the
company which made the turbines would become a part of Enron Wind, which would still later
become a part of GE Wind, which is still in business today (24). The next year NASA built a
record breaking 7.5mW turbine called Mod-2. This turbine had the largest diameter blades in the
world and the highest energy output for a single wind turbine (1).
In 1991 at Vindeby, Denmark the worlds first offshore wind farm was made. This wind farm
consists of eleven 450 kW turbines (1). Located 2 km from the coastline, these turbines are still
running today. This eleven turbines have an estimated 20% greater output than similar onshore
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turbines due to the wind experienced offshore (25). This success has led to other offshore wind
farms, due to the fact that no one can complain about the turbines obstructing their view when
the turbines are at sea.
In 2003 the UK opened its first offshore wind farm off the coast of northern Wales. This farm
had thirty 2 mW turbines. By 2007 the UK had a wind power capacity of 2 gW, it was at this
point that Britain planned to have thousands of new offshore wind turbines by 2020, Enough to
power every home in Britain (1).By 2008 the UK had 186 total wind farms with 2,120 turbines.
These turbines are enough to power 1,523,052 homes while saving 6,156,175 tons of carbon
from being emitted (1).
The Present:
So how exactly would a wind turbine built in 2014 work? Well the current design for a wind
turbine is all based upon the trials of past turbines to see what works best. There are three
different types of designs that are made today.
Building a wind turbine today is a fairly straight forward process but is difficult to do due to the
size of the components. Before building of the turbine can start, a road must be present for the
cranes and trucks to drive on. Normally this takes place as a gravel road laid down over the
existing land. This is done by first clearing a path from a public road to the location where the
wind turbine will be (15). This pathway must be 40 feet wide to accommodate for the large
trucks and cranes. The topsoil is collected while the soil under that is compacted. After
construction this road will be converted into a 16 foot wide permanent road and the top soil is
returned to the 24 foot wide of road that is converted back into grassland. (15)
Two cranes in total will be needed to erect the turbine. A small crane for assembling the pieces
of the rotor and installing the control panel to the base. A large crane to install the mid and upper
sections of the tower, and to put the rotor on top (15). Before building can start, first the
electrical wires to a substation must be placed underground as they will be easier to dig before
the base of the turbine is laid. Trenches that are two feet wide and 4 feet deep are dug and the
electrical wires are laid down that will be used to transfer power from the turbine to the
substation (15). Next a hole is excavating that will be where the foundation is laid. The size of
this hole depends upon the size of the turbine. For a 262 foot tall turbine, a foundation made of
325 yards of concrete and reinforced steel was used by We-energy. This foundation was 55 feet
wide and 8 feet deep (15). Then the soil placed back over the foundation, this is what prevents
the turbine from falling down.
Next an area is marked as the crane pad area. This area is approximately 55 feet by 80 feet for a
262 foot turbine (15). Next the trucks start to move tower pieces to the site, for a 262 foot tower
these pieces are approximately 74 feet long, making transport difficult. The tower pieces are then
then assembled in order on the base. It takes about seven hours just to set the first two sections
out of four (15). After all the tower sections have been put into place and secured the nacelle is
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placed on top (this is the part of the turbine that contains the gearbox and generator behind the
blades). A yaw deck on the nacelle allows the nacelle to rotate based upon which way the wind
is blowing to get the most energy out of it. The blades are connected to the central cone and the
cone plus the three now connected blades are lifted up to the nacelle. Once this is connected to
the front of the turbine, the turbine is ready to start producing electricity (15).
Once a wind turbine is up and running there are several factors that decide how much electricity
can be produced from the turbine. The longer the blades on the turbine, the more air that they
may catch and therefore the more energy they can produce (14). But at the same time the heavier
the blade the less they will spin, and therefore the less energy they will produce. The angle of the
blades can also be adjusted depending on how fast the wind is blowing. The efficiency of the
gearbox and generator also matter. The location of the turbine will determine how much wind
there is for the turbine to use, As well as how tall the turbine is, the taller the stronger the wind
(14).

Figure 4: As the size of the blades increase, so does the energy, in this case it can be seen that 8
times the length causes 100 times the energy. (5)
There are also several factors into the cost of a wind turbine. Obviously the raw material cost of
a turbine is important (14). Large turbines can cost millions of dollars which is a major reason
why there arent millions of them. The larger the turbine is, the more significant the costs for
supplies and labor to erect the turbine. For turbines its mostly about return on investment as
over time the turbine can reduce or eliminate cost of electricity. However this can take as long as
twenty years to make back all of the money, and start to make a profit (14). The location of the
turbine will affect how long it takes to make back the invested money. Some places just naturally
have more wind, and during winter the average wind is greater. A turbine that breaks down less
or that needs less maintenance will cost less, but at the same time building a high quality turbine
that wont break down costs more money. Luckily there are some government subsidies for wind
power. The United States Production Tax Credit is 2.2 cents per Kilowatt hour produced by a
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wind turbine and there are subsides that lower the upfront cost to encourage the building of wind
turbines (14).
The gearbox wind turbine generates electrical energy by angling three blades that the wind then
pushes these blades causing their rotation. The rotation of the blades causes the main shaft to
also rotate. This is where the gearbox comes into play (5). The gearboxs job is to transfer this
energy to a small high speed shaft that is then connected to a generator. The gearbox works by
interconnecting cogs with the goal of taking a big cog to a small cog as the smaller cog will
rotate faster. The rotation of this high speed shaft is converted from kinetic energy to electrical
energy by the generator (5). The generator uses this energy to produce hundreds of volts of
power. The electrical current then travels down electrical cables to the base of the turbine to a
transformer. This transformer takes the hundreds of volts and multiples it to thousands of volts,
which is enough for distribution. From here to electricity travels via underground wires to a
collection point where multiple turbines are connected to a single point (5). From this collection
point the electricity can either be sent to nearby homes or other close structures, or fed into a
substation, where the voltage will be transformed into hundreds of thousands of voltages and
sent over longer distances by above ground wires for far away cities or factories. (5)

Figure 5: The insides of a traditional gearbox wind turbine. (6)

This design however does have its flaws. The gearbox causes a loss of energy as energy is lost
through this contact of gears. Energy is also lost every time electricity has to be transferred by
wires; the longer the wires, the greater the energy loss (5). This means that using a substation to
transfer energy to faraway places is inefficient (5).
The gearless wind turbine works on the same principle as a gearbox turbine. Instead of using a
high speed shaft that requires gears that waste energy, the energy goes directly from the main
shaft to a large ring of permanent magnets (8). This type of wind turbine can be identified by its
much smaller base that holds the blades. A gearbox turbine has a much longer base to hold the
gearbox and generator inside. However for a gearless turbine, these magnets are the generator
(8). The main shaft spins magnets inside of stationary copper coils. Physics 101 teaches you that
when you move a magnet through copper coils it creates a current. This current is the same if not

greater than the current created by normal gearbox generators with the added advantage of Get
rid of the gearbox, and now you don't have to change the oil," -GE engineer Gary Mercer (8).

Figure 6: The components of a newer gearless wind turbine (8)

The vertical axis turbine again works on the idea of blades spinning by the force of wind to
provide energy for a generator (5). But this turbine is different from the other two in that it is
fixed in the vertical axis instead of the horizontal. This is the eggbeater windmill or Darrieus
turbine that was mentioned earlier. The curved blades spin for a shaft that is connected to a
gearbox at the bottom of the turbine. This gearbox is connected to a generator that creates the
electricity (5). This interesting design does give the turbine a few advantages over the other
turbines. Due to its shape, this turbine is always optimized to get the most wind flow, no matter
which direction the wind blows from, unlike a horizontal turbine that wont spin if the wind isnt
blowing at the blades. Also all the important components that may need maintenance or repair
are located at the bottom of the turbine on the ground (5). This makes it much easier to perform
maintenance than horizontal wind turbines that have everything hundreds of feet in the air.
However because it is closer to the ground, the amount of wind that the turbine can use is less, as
the wind is stronger the higher up you go. Also these turbines require long guy wires to keep
them from falling down, which can take up a lot of space. Vertical axis turbines tend to only be
used for small scale or rural water pumping (5).

Figure 7: Diagram for a vertical axis wind turbine. (5)

Wind power isnt all positives however as all energy sources have their down sides. Wind
turbines are so expensive to build that they can be a nuisance to tax payers whose money goes to
subsidizing the turbines creation, and the energy it produces after it is built (28). The power
supplied by wind turbines also varies so it wont always be producing at maximum capacity or
even producing at all if the wind isnt strong enough (28). A main problem is that we cant make
the turbines output more when demand increases at certain times of day, unlike a coal plant
where you can increase the amount of coal burned to keep up with demand. There are also
environmental effects of a wind turbine. Building a wind turbine often requires the removal of
forest trees or farmland (28). In order to make space for enough wind turbines to make a major
impact in reducing the number of coal plants, vast amounts of forest and/or farmland would need
to be cleared for space (28). Not to mention the danger to birds flying into the blades of wind
turbines. Also capacity rating of turbines can be misleading, while a turbine may be rated 6 mW,
on average that turbine will only produce 30% of that maximum power over a year (10).
In the United States since 2007 there has been a 300% increase in the amount of wind power
generated. This has been due to a government interest in increasing the amount of renewable
energy in the country (12). Government policies such as the Federal Renewable
Energy Production Tax Credit (PTC) and the State Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) have
been extended multiple times past their expiration dates. 36 of the 50 States use RPS and
represent 70% of the energy produced in the United States (12). The goal for these 36 states is to
have 20% renewable energy by 2020, which would be a huge step to fighting carbon emissions.
These efforts have paid off since emissions peaked in 2007; they have fallen by an average
of 730 million metric tons every year since (12).

Figure 8: Wind energy in the United States has made the greatest gains of all the renewable
energies. (12)
Globally we have come a long way in the wind industry. The worlds most powerful wind
turbine was just released by manufacturer Vestas, called the V164, an 8 megawatt turbine for
offshore use (20). This turbine is built to last 25 years in the harshness of the North Sea, made to
ensure as little maintenance as possible, and when it reaches the end of its life, 80% of the
turbine can be recycled. The 164 meter diameter blades cover an area of three football fields, if
there were 200 of these turbines in a wind farm, they would produce the same amount of energy
as the average nuclear power plant (20).

Figure 9: An image of V164 at the test facility in Denmark. (20)

A study published in Nature Climate Change claims that wind could provide for 20-100 times
the worlds current electrical demands (27). However the same study says that wind power isnt
the only solution to CO2 emissions as building this many wind turbines may not be practical or
even feasible. Finding the money and resources to build millions of turbines would be a major
obstacle to overcome. Humans as a whole use 18 terawatts (18 trillion watts) of power per year,
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and an astonishing 87% of this power comes from oil, gas, and coal. The surface of the earth has
enough wind to generate 400 terawatts, and if you go up higher, there are 1,800 terawatts of wind
in the upper atmosphere (27). Wind turbines have been proven to be the least carbon polluting
form of energy as it can offset the carbon produced from manufacture of parts in just a matter of
months (27).

Figure 10: Pie chart of the capacity for wind turbines in the world based on 2013 data. (26)
A single 6 mW turbine can power 5,500 average European homes. As of 2012 there were a total
of 225,000 wind turbines in operation. These 225,000 turbines contribute 2.5% of the global
energy usage (26). Of these wind turbines 45,894 of them are in China, where there was a growth
of 39.4% in turbines from 2011 to 2012. In 2011 alone 23,640 new wind turbines were erected
globally. The three countries with the highest energy produced by wind are China, the United
States, and Germany respectively. Combined these three countries account for almost 60% of the
global wind energy produced (26).
The Future:

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There is a lot of research being done into increasing the productivity of wind turbines.
Optimizing the total output energy of the design, decreasing the weight so that as few materials
are used, making the blades more efficient, and using more offshore turbines are all ideas for the
future of the wind turbines (9).
GE is currently working on a space frame tower that is located in Tehachapi, California. This
97 meter tall, 1.7 megawatt turbine has a 100 meter rotor diameter. Instead of being made of
thick metal to support it, the turbine is made of a series of struts that are locked together with
bolts. (10) This greatly reduces the amount of metal used to construct the base of the turbine
while still providing the amount of support needed to keep the turbine from falling down under
heavy winds. Old attempts at such a design failed due to bolts coming loose and a problem with
birds taking up home inside the structure, which lead to increased bird deaths from the blades
(10).

Figure 11: The inside of a space frame tower clearly uses less material. (10)
However the idea is being revisited as new innovations have made the old negative no more. A
PVC polymer material is used to cover the structure so that birds cant get inside as can be seen
in figure 11. This hollow inside also provides enough room for all the electrical equipment to be
stored inside where it is safe from the weather (10). The bolts that hold the struts together were
also redesigned in the form of splined bolts which prevent the structure from becoming unstable
due to loose or broken bolts. The twenty meter base combined with this space frame tower
allows for a 120 meter tall turbine to use 20-30% less steel than traditional 100 meter tall
turbines (10).
Engineers are also currently working on a turbine that will float in the air like a blimp, where the
wind speeds are much higher than that of what turbines today are capable of reaching since they
are on the ground. In places like Alaska where energy prices are over ten times the national
average, the Buoyant Air Turbine (BAT) is being tested by Altaeros. This turbine floats 1000
feet in the air where it is able to collect energy for dozens of homes. It works by filling the shell
around the turbine with helium while high-strength tethers keep the BAT in place (29). The BAT
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is controlled by an automated controller, which constantly checks to see if the BAT needs to be
higher or lower in the sky to capture stronger winds or to increase stability, so it doesnt need a
ground crew to operate it. "Roughly speaking, a doubling of wind speed equates to an eight-fold
increase in wind power density. Says Altaeros co-founder Adam Rein (29). The BAT is capable
of delivering two to three times as much energy as a ground turbine of similar blade size.
Altaeros expects to be able to sell its electricity from the BAT for 18 cents per kilowatt hour,
which may be greater than the 11.6 national average, but its a great alternative for places like
Hawaii, Alaska, and even California where the costs are much higher than this average (29).

Figure 12: Picture for scale of how a BAT is able to get higher in the air than a traditional wing
turbine. (29)
An even more radical idea is also in the works. Most wind turbines only collect from the wind
that is naturally given to us by nature as high pressure air goes to low pressure air. However what
if we were able to produce our own wind and then harvest electricity from that wind? This is the
idea behind a Tower planned to be built in San Luis, Arizona (30). This revolutionary idea by
The Company, Solar Wind Energy, intends to build a nuclear power plant shaped tower 2,250
feet tall. Originally an idea by Dr. Phillip Carlson from the Lockheed Martin Aircraft
Corporation, the idea is to get fast winds to flow down the tower and out the bottom, where
winds turbines will generate electricity (30). However winds dont just go down the tower by
themselves. This will only work in an area with high temperatures because it relies on spraying a
fog over the top of the tower. This fog will absorb the heat from the surrounding environment
and cause this now dense, cool air to fall to the bottom of the tower. These winds have been
shown to go as fast as 50 miles per hour through the tower (30). These turbines together produce
a whopping average of 435 megawatts, which comes close to the power generated by small
nuclear power plant. Unfortunately a tower this tall is estimated to cost 1.6 billion dollars, and
only 1.6 million dollars in funding was recently received by Solar Wind Energy (30).

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Figure 13: An artists rendering of what the new age wind turbine by Solar Wind Energy will
look like in 2018. (30)
However as technology for wind turbines continues to grow, there is a mixed reaction to their
being built. In the UK only 1/3 of applications for onshore wind turbines were approved to be
built in the last 5 months (11). This number is half of what it was in 2013 with 164 total projects
being halted. This drop in approval is linked to English councils following in the footsteps of
Communities Secretary Eric Pickles, who has recently shot down almost every applicant he has
seen. Conservative energy minister Michael Fallon has also recently said that there would be
great changes to policy regarding wind power (11). He wants to end subsidies for onshore wind
turbines that would make such turbines unaffordable. Eric isnt alone, Communities Minister
Kris Hopkins has also noted to have said wind turbines can be a blot on the landscape, harming
the local environment and damaging heritage for miles around. (11)
Policies arent like this all over the world. In the United States for example President Obamas
All-of-the-Above Energy Strategy wants to use renewable energy as a way of cutting back on
carbon emissions and to become independent from foreign fuel sources. (13) Since the election
of Barack Obama in 2008, the production of wind power has tripled. Should trends continue, the
United States are set to have 10 gigawatts of renewable energy on publicly owned lands by 2020
and have doubled its current solar and wind generation by 2025 (13). Obama also wants to
reduce subsidies to oil companies and make the Federal Renewable Energy Production Tax
Credit permanent instead of needing constant renewal (13).
In China however the use of wind energy has exploded over recent years. China has little history
with wind turbines, although it is no stranger to wind mills. China leads the world in renewable
energy capacity although to be fair they also have far and away the most people. The Chinese
government has supplied nonstop financial support for renewable energy that makes this
possible. In 2012 China invested $68 billion of wind and solar alone (31). This with Chinas
already massive supply of hydropower means that Chinas renewable energies are capable of
supplying the country with over 25% of its needs (31). This translates to a bright green future for
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China. In fact the WWF believes that by 2050, China will be 80% renewable energy. All of this
can be done with a 90% reduction of carbon and wont risk economic growth. A big concern
about switching from coal to renewables is the economic impact it will have on countries. If
China can prove that this is possible, then other countries are likely to try similar methods. By
fully embracing energy conservation, efficiency and renewables, China has the potential to
demonstrate to the world that economic growth is possible while sharply reducing the emissions
says the WWFs China Climate and Energy Program Director Lunyan Lu.

Figure 14: Chinas wind energy explodes around 2007 and doesnt stop growing. (31)
It is projected that by 2020, wind energy will be 8-12% of the global energy usage (26). This is
important because fossil fuels wont last forever, and even if they did, we cant use them forever
due to their carbon footprint. Wind energy is quickly becoming more and more powerful. As
time goes on the price of electricity from wind turbines has continued to fall, today it is close to
what coal fired energy plants cost, but in the future it could not only cost less, but it would even
make money for individuals who install them. This idea is currently used in places like Germany
where the fed-in tariff allows people who own a wind turbine to make money off of it. This can
take close to 20 years due to upfront costs, but hopefully one day almost everyone will have
access to clean affordable wind turbine electricity.

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