Power-Up: Siemens Accordion Nacelle, Vestas Yaw Control

This week Allen and Phil discuss Siemens Gamesa's accordion nacelle
idea, Vestas's innovative yaw control system, LM Windpower's LEP
install tool, and a helpful beach relaxation invention. Visit
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www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen
Hall: Welcome to Power Up, the Uptime podcast focused on the new
hot off the press technology that can change the world. Follow
along with me, Allen Hall, and idasaurus Phil Totaro, as we discuss
the weird, the wild, and the game changing ideas that will charge
your energy future. Hey Phil, the first thing on our list today is
a unique patent idea from Siemens Gamesa. Which is for a wind
turbine nacelle with movable sections to expand it out. Kind of
like Louis Armstrong's cheeks when he's blowing that trumpet. It
just pops out. And gives you a little more space to get some work
done on the nacelles. This is a pretty cool idea, even though I
have, we've seen other versions of this, we haven't seen an
expandable version of this, others have tried something similar
though, right? Philip Totaro: Yeah, so this, Allen, this is
basically what I've dubbed like the accordion nacelle, or bagpipe
nacelle, I don't know what you want to, how you want to label it,
but the idea here is, and look, the bottom line is, I, to be blunt,
I actually think this is a terrible patent, but it's a clever idea,
and I'll explain what I mean by all that. So, in the world of going
and, capturing innovation, whatever industry you're in, You want to
be able to capture Patentable ideas on things that a you're going
to use and manufacture because then it's it's protecting your own
business or you want to get patents on things that are actually
things that a competitor might want to use And by having the
patent, you basically blocked them from, from going down that
technological path. Unfortunately, I don't think that this is this
particular patent from Siemens Gamesa accomplishes that, because I
don't think that they're gonna use this idea, and I don't think
that Competitors would necessarily use this idea. So, however What
I do like about this is the, the inventiveness of the concept and
the way that the engineers were thinking and doing the creative
problem solving around a legitimate transportation related issue
that we have in the industry. So for those of you that aren't
familiar, there are certain transportation constraints that we've
got in, in wind energy where, particularly if you're trying to ship
something, that has to fit underneath a bridge, overpass, or
through a tunnel, You might have certain restrictions on things
like the nacelle width and height, the blade root, the maximum
chord of a blade, things like that, or even the tower diameter, and
it creates certain technological challenges. And so that's actually
why I flagged this idea to talk about today is because this is
really great problem solving and very creative problem solving to
say, look, We've got this challenge where in order to transport
something, it's got to fit within those constraints of being,
approximately 4. 2 meters. Or less it's about, what, 22, 23 feet or
less for, for those of us on the, on the English system but the,
the, there are different ways to skin a cat, basically Vestas has
come up with this idea of having basically, cargo containers that
are converted, or specifically manufactured, is probably the better
way to say it, So that they can bolt on to the sides. And they're
using that on their offshore machines, the V236. They're actually
also, if you haven't noticed, they're using it on the onshore 7
megawatt turbine as well. They actually have a nacelle with An
extra kind of cargo container or shipping container sized thing.
Bolted down at the right or left hand side of the nacelle. To
provide them additional space for all the up tower components. The
hydraulic system, the cooling system. Pumps, motors, fans for
lubrication systems. If they've got I don't, well, they don't have
an up tower transformer anymore, but any of the other electrical
cabinets or anything else that they need up tower, they've got to
have some extra space. So going again, going back to the Siemens
Gamesa invention, is it a good patent? No, because I think, as I
explained, it doesn't really accomplish what you need a patent to
accomplish. Is it a good, clever invention and, and technological
solution and, and creative problem solving. Absolutely. And I, I
encourage that and I applaud that. So even though this idea might
not get used, it's, it's still a very clever way to, to tackle a
relevant industry challenge. Allen Hall: Well, another industry
challenge is leading edge protection and our friends at LM wind
power have come up with some really simple tools, sort of ingenious
tools to create those leading edge shells. And if you've seen these
protective devices, they're kind of floppy, they're not solid. And
one of the critical pieces of that is to make sure that the
trailing edge of that is cut cleanly and crisply. So you don't
create any kind of aerodynamic problems. Plus it makes it a little
bit easier to install because you're working along a straight line.
However, Phil, if you've ever tried to cut. Like a jelly or
something that's moving. It's pretty hard to get a straight line
and that's what it's like cutting those materials. You want to
shift every time you apply some force to them. So this is a kind of
an interesting concept to figure out how to basically trim
something that's pretty flexible. Philip Totaro: Yeah. So this,
this is a, it's a relatively simple innovation in terms of, it's
just basically a kind of like a table almost with a little,
circular saw, at least that's how they've conceptualized it in the,
in the, the patent application they've got. But what's clever about
it, in addition to what you just mentioned, Allen, it's, it's
necessary to be able to shape the the leading edge protection
strips so that it. conforms to the shape of the blade and doesn't
adversely impact the, the aerodynamic profile on, on the blade. And
so you need to be able to cut a pretty precise straight line or
curved line that doesn't have any of these, sharp ridges or
anything or waves to it. That, that would otherwise impact the
that, that aero performance. So this is one where it's a pretty
simple and straightforward innovation. We believe by the way, that
this is actually in production that this is an invention that we
think is, TRL, eight or nine, basically, if you're not familiar
with technology readiness levels or TRLs, that's basically a
measure from one up until nine. About the technological maturity.
So we're going to be referring to, to this with some of the
inventions we talk about. This one we think is actually being used
in some of the the Ellen factories or potentially some of their
subcontractors that are, that are making some of these leading edge
parts for them. So this is a, this is a very clever way of being
able to accomplish something that provides both leading edge
protection and ensures aero performance. Allen Hall: And as we move
on to the electrical world, we have a concept from Vestas, which
deals with the yaw control. And on an electrically driven yaw
system, you got two, two elements. Basic elements, you have a motor
or series of motors, and you have a series of brakes. Pretty
straightforward. However, that if the turbine is connected to the
grid and the grid frequency or voltage fluctuates, you can get some
really strange results. One of them being is that you damage the
brakes or drag the brakes, as they say, and create yourself an
expensive repair to keep going out and fixing because the voltage
on a wind turbine, sometimes depending on the time of day and where
you are, That's fluctuate a great deal. Philip Totaro: Yes, this
one's actually kind of fascinating because I had never really seen
a company Conceptualize a yaw control Strategy like this. So it
basically if you read through this this patent what they're talking
about is trying to use the detection circuit for whatever the grid
voltage is and And use that as an input to the yaw control system,
whether you're continuing a yaw action or clamping on the, the
brake. And the reason that I think Vestas came up with this is
we've heard some feedback from folks in the field, that even though
you may have yaw brakes that are segmented and so you could unbolt
a section of it if, a piece of it got worn out. And that, that was
an innovation that, that somebody came up with a long time ago. And
that was a very clever one. But in order to prevent excessive wear,
as you mentioned, Allen, on the, on the yaw brakes and on the, in
the calipers themselves because those are, those are expensive
parts and we know there's been supply chain issues in the industry
and, and it can be hard to get access to some of these replacement
parts sometimes. So this is a pretty clever way of using the
control system to ensure that the brakes don't drag or clamp. And
hold and cause spalling or any other type of thing that, that might
happen from, from having the brakes clamped on to an excessive
degree. So measuring the, the grid voltage and determining the grid
fluctuations as an input to your yaw control system was actually a
pretty unique thing. And so that, that's kudos to, to Vestas for.