Several researchers and engineers within Universities across the US have built a two-bladed offshore wind turbine that can sustain the impact of a coastal hurricane. The group published their work in CU Boulder Today, describing their revolutionary wind turbine as being "bio-inspired by palm trees," and utilizing twin blades "manufactured to be lightweight and flexible."
The group is comprised of individuals from the likes of the Colorado School of Mines, the University of Texas at Dallas, the University of Virginia, the University of Colorado Boulder, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). Together they devised a 53.38-kilowatt wind turbine, coining the design as SUMR-D, standing for Segmented Ultralight Morphing Rotor demonstrator.
The University of Colorado Boulder put out a YouTube video featuring the team's work, headed by the University's Lucy Pao, Palmer Endowed Chair in the Department of Electrical, Computer, and Energy Engineering. She explains the system's main controller as the most interesting piece of this hurricane-resistant wind turbine, describing it as "the brain of the system." It essentially acts as sophisticated software that calculates the best time to either ramp up or slow down power production.
The team performed their research over the course of four years amid NREL's Flatirons Campus near Boulder, Colorado. Given its lightweight and durable twin blades, coupled with a downwind rotor, the group's SUMR-D proved remarkable even when paired against exceptionally high winds. Its downwind blades allow for the SUMR-D to take a beating, bending in such strong wind conditions as opposed to simply breaking in the immense strain.
The researchers intend to leverage their underlying controller algorithm for further testing on even three-bladed wind turbines while still enhancing the existing SUMR-D to improve upon two-bladed wind turbine advantages. Pao and her group haven't yet tested but have generalized designs and modules for offshore downwind turbines at both 25 MW and 50 MW.
In the future, Pao hopes to build beyond the SUMR-D concept through highly enhanced controllers, newfound turbine configurations, and even more durable rotor materials in order to produce energy-efficient and cost-effective facilities that require just one large wind turbine as opposed to utilizing many smaller ones.
