January 2011

You might be an expert on conventional horizontal and vertical wind turbines, but have you heard of airborne wind? If the pace of innovation in the nascent airborne wind industry is any guide, 10 years from now “airborne wind turbines” could become a household word. Why? In most of the Northern hemisphere, just a few thousand feet above our heads blows a vast untapped resource on par with some of the best ground-based wind sites in the world. Go 10 times higher into the troposphere and you’ll find the highest density source of renewable energy in the world.

Harnessing high altitude airborne wind may take some major leaps, but closer to Earth airborne wind is on track to become a cost effective, practical, and utility scale-ready segment of the wind industry within the decade. Most airborne wind companies have their sights set on the “boundary layer” winds that blow a few thousand feet above ground level. Bringing utility scale airborne wind to market at those altitudes doesn’t require any breakthroughs, just solid engineering work, R&D investment, and the support and guidance of the experienced ground-based wind community.

At least 30 startups and research groups around the world are busy at work to make airborne wind a reality. An abundance of commercial off the shelf (COTS) technologies and tools are enabling them to achieve a remarkable pace of innovation. Over the years their prototypes have proven the basic principles of airborne wind and grown into the tens of kilowatts. The next step for the industry leaders is to prove their systems can perform reliably during long-term continuous operation in the field.

Airborne wind is in its infancy, but if it makes it off the ground it would help extend the reach of the wind industry to new locations where ground-based turbines aren’t cost effective today. Makani Power, a well-funded leader in airborne wind, believes its Airborne Wind Turbine (AWT) technology can extend the developable terrestrial wind resource area by five times, to over 80 percent of the U.S. land surface. Paired with ground-based turbines, airborne wind promises to help keep the power lines humming by reducing the variability of production, and by “going vertical” to extract more energy from a given land area.

Innovation through Assimilation
Airborne wind borrows many established technologies from the rest of the wind energy industry, sometimes even using the same type of generators, gearboxes, and grid-tied power converters. Table 1 compares similarities and differences between ground-based and airborne turbines. The main feature that makes airborne turbines different is the way they extract energy from the wind. Instead of a large steel tower structure, a tether cable anchors the system to the ground. Rather than rotating blades, specially designed airfoils sweep a path across the sky to extract energy.

This ability to sweep through a larger cross section of the sky is one of the fundamental attractions of airborne wind, enabling a modestly sized airfoil to extract large amounts of energy from the stronger, more-consistent winds found higher above ground. Like the tip of a conventional turbine blade, the airfoil flies crosswind in a circle or figure-eight pattern at many times the speed of the wind, as shown in Figure 1.

Airborne and ground-based turbines operate on much the same aerodynamic principals. Just like conventional wind energy, power production is proportional to one-half the air density times the cube of wind speed (Equation 1).

Thus, a small increase in wind speed makes a big difference in power, since doubling wind speed yields eight times more power. Like the tip of a conventional turbine blade the airfoil wing travels at high speeds through the air, using aerodynamic lift to efficiently extract energy. At a wingspan comparable in length to a wind turbine blade, an airborne turbine can sweep a larger region of the sky to access nearly 10 times more energy. Airborne turbines can also move up or down in altitude and adjust their flight path to adjust for a wide range of wind conditions. Mechanically, airborne turbines benefit from being cushioned in a pillow of air during flight rather than being rigidly connected to the ground—however, the g-force loads caused by their fast moving patterns can put significant stress on airfoil structures and tether lines.

Operating at Altitude
By going up above the reach of ground-based turbines, airborne machines chase the consistent and stronger wind resource at altitude. At 2,000 feet wind speeds above 8 m/s are blowing more than 40 percent of the time at most locations in the northern hemisphere. Furthermore, power densities (kW/m2) are on par with the world’s most favorable sites for ground-based wind, as illustrated in Figure 2. Thus, airborne turbines should expand the reach of the wind industry into new regions and could be located closer to population centers.

Although boundary layer winds provide the “low hanging fruit” being chased by most companies today, the most elusive prize is found in the jet stream winds of the troposphere. At 35,000 feet, average power densities soar beyond 20 kW/m2 and the total available resource is measured in thousands of terawatts (TW), hundreds of times higher than world energy demand. “From an environmental perspective, getting huge terawatt-scale renewable systems is really important,”  according to Ken Caldeira of the Carnegie Institution of Washington at the Airborne Wind Energy Conference 2010. “The idea that airborne wind power is of the scale to meet civilization’s needs is sound. Airborne wind energy is one of the few civilization scale power generation technologies.”

Caldeira is a world-renowned climate scientist who has studied the potential environmental impact of extracting civilization scale power levels from high altitude wind. His models indicate that extracting 18 TW, enough energy to satisfy world energy demand, would itself have no significant impact on climate, resulting in a negligible cooling effect of 0.04 oC. Of course, switching the world to cheap, clean, carbon-free power would certainly have a positive impact on the environment.

Harnessing high-altitude wind is a bold vision but brings with it a wide range of technical and logistical challenges, from finding tether lines that are strong and light enough to gaining Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approval and airspace clearance. Even at boundary layer altitudes, FAA permitting questions need to be resolved. At least for now, making tropospheric wind commercially viable is likely to remain elusive. Even companies with their sights set on the troposphere plan to start at more modest heights. “At 1,000 feet wind is profitable on 70 percent of the world,” says Pierre Rivard, CEO of MAGENN Power, a company developing lighter than air generators resembling blimps that also double as floating cell phone towers.

Exploring the Design Space
Looking top down, there are three primary ways to classify airborne wind systems: 1) altitude: low, boundary layer or troposphere; 2) type of airfoil: lighter or heavier than air, rigid or flexible, drag, lift, or rotorcraft based, and; 3) generator location and type: ground or airborne, gearbox or direct drive.

Like the early days of the ground-based wind industry, researchers in airborne wind are testing every possible design choice to find out what works best. Even with computer models there’s no substitute for a physical prototype. Working prototypes are also going a long way toward convincing skeptics and attracting investors. “I think people were more skeptical a few years ago, but today there are many startup companies working on this,” says Archan Padmanabhan, director of business development at Joby Energy. “Over the past several years, the industry has seen many prototypes, and we’ve seen them growing larger into the tens of kilowatts. At Joby we started with ground-based generator designs, tested autogyro concepts, and finally moved to a winged airborne generation system with multiple rotors and power sent down the cable. Now we’re exploring ways in which the wing can be structured to simplify takeoff and landing.”

Overcoming Technical Challenges
The idea of using a “tethered airfoil” as a way to generate power isn’t new. The fundamental concepts were patented in the late 1970s and are now public domain. Lawrence Livermore National Lab researcher Miles L. Loyd pioneered the fundamental mathematical equations for airborne wind, developed computer models, and validated them with small experimental prototypes. His seminal paper, “Crosswind Kite Power,” was published in the June 1980 issue of the Journal of Energy.

So why hasn’t airborne wind reached commercial viability? The answer has to do with complexity, cost, and Moore’s law. Just 10 years ago the processing, instrumentation, sensors, and control software were prohibitively expensive. Today exponential increases in embedded computing power (Moore’s law), instrumentation technology, and the availability of high level, high productivity software tools and rugged embedded computing platforms enables airborne wind companies to build and test their prototypes by the dozen, using readily available COTS technology and high level software tools to shrink the time between design, prototype, and field deployment.

“Would airborne wind have been cost effective 10 years ago?” Padmanabhan asks. “No. It’s definitely advances in technology that make it cost effective today, from inexpensive aircraft materials to low-cost GPS sensors, autonomous flight software, and the increasing power of embedded computing. The biggest technical hurdle that’s been overcome is in the area of control systems. Thanks to the aerospace industry, flight control systems have become a lot more robust than at any time before. Commercial airlines today are primarily flown on autopilot and people trust those systems—no one expects airplanes to come crashing down. The aircraft industry has a lot to offer, and we are learning from it.”

Windlift, another airborne wind startup, is developing mobile airborne wind turbines that have attracted significant interest from the U.S. military because their high-power density makes them a future replacement for diesel generators and the vulnerable fuel convoys that must supply them. Windlift uses the National Instruments’ LabVIEW graphical programming language and NI CompactRIO ruggedized embedded instrumentation systems for control and dynamic monitoring, as shown in the interface for their 12 kW prototype system (Figure 3). Control Design Engineer Matt Bennett explains how commercially available tools play an important role in their development. “Having a COTS real-time system is a big enabler,” he says. “Actively flying the airfoil under high load is a real challenge and the NI CompactRIO system takes care of all of the signal processing and feedback control tasks required to keep the system stable. We extensively use the field programmable gate array, or FPGA, which handles tasks completely in parallel. The LabVIEW FPGA technology is indispensible. There are a lot of things it does that we couldn’t do any other way.”

Power Generation Technologies
We are all familiar with the spinning blades of ground-based turbines. So how do airborne turbines generate power? Although techniques vary widely—from tethered rotorcraft to lighter than air spinning blimps—the most mundane and popular techniques leverage one of two basic principles: 1) a ground-based generator attached to the tether cable winch which produces power as the kite pulls out the cable, or; 2) a set of high speed wind-driven propellers onboard the airfoil that drive small airborne generators. Table 2 compares the pros and cons of these popular approaches.

Ground-based generator systems, like those being developed by Windlift in the U.S. and KITEnergy in Europe, produce power when the airfoil pulls a tether line. The torque and velocity of the tether cable produces electricity by spinning a generator that is attached to a rotating winch drum. As illustrated in Figure 4, there are two distinct modes of operation—the traction phase, and the recovery phase. In the traction phase the airfoil slowly pulls the tether line and electricity is produced until the maximum tether length or altitude is reached. Then the recovery phase begins, during which the airfoil is flown back while the tether cable is winched in. Recovery actually uses a small amount of power, as the generator becomes a motor drive to retract the cable. Then the process begins again.

For steering, the airfoil wirelessly transmits GPS coordinates and roll, pitch, and yaw information from an inertial measurement unit (IMU) in the air to a kite steering unit (KSU) on the ground. KITEnergy uses the National Instruments PXI platform and LabVIEW Real-Time software as the ground control unit, which acquires and processes the sensor signals and executes advanced control algorithms to command the winch motor-generator and steer the kite. “Theoretical, numerical, and experimental results so far indicate that KITEnergy technology could provide large quantities of renewable energy, available practically everywhere, at lower cost than fossil energy,” according to KITEnergy founder Mario Milanese.

Other companies, such as Joby Energy and Makani Power, are pursuing airborne generator designs. In this case a number of small propeller-driven generators located on the aircraft are used for power generation, and power is sent down the tether cable to the ground. Airborne generator systems are typically more like an aircraft and less like a kite, featuring an onboard computerized autopilot system and flight control surfaces to control roll, pitch, and yaw like elevators and ailerons. A great deal of engineering effort at airborne wind companies is focused on perfecting these flight control systems and making them robust to any sort of problem, from gusting winds to actuator and sensor failures. The Makani Power system is being designed so it can even disconnect from the tether and land autonomously if needed. Any control or aerospace engineer looking for a fascinating challenge should consider working in the airborne wind industry. Figure 5 illustrates the salient features of the Joby Energy design, which is capable of vertical takeoff and landing and uses high-speed crosswind flight patterns to maximize energy output.

Not surprisingly for such a nascent segment of the wind industry, the dust has yet to settle on which design choices prove to be the most practical and cost effective. It is way too early to call this race, but my guess is that the leading contender today is a boundary layer system with a rigid airfoil that’s carefully designed to maximize aerodynamic efficiency and an onboard flight control system. Figure 6 Airborne wind has a way to go before becoming a mature technology, but one thing is for sure—it’s an exciting time. Each new prototype that takes flight helps to convince skeptics and investors alike that above-ground wind power isn’t such a crazy idea. If you’re a professional in the wind industry, consider lending your talents to help airborne wind get off the ground. To learn more visit the Airborne Wind Energy Consortium Web site at www.aweconsortium.org. 

Soon to rise from the fertile corn and soybean fields of central Illinois is the White Oak Wind Energy Center, developed by Chicago based Invenergy LLC. The 150-megawatt project located northwest of Bloomington, Illinois, will include 100 General Electric 1.5 megawatt wind turbines. Invenergy has reportedly negotiated power purchase agreements (PPA’s) with the Tennessee Valley Authority, a federally owned utility, to export the wind power out of state.

Plenty of Power
According to Illinois Wind Power, the electric load in Illinois is primarily served by large coal and nuclear plants that use hundreds of miles of high voltage transmission lines to deliver power to users. Wind farms can easily tie into this existing infrastructure, making wind power a valuable export commodity for rural Illinois communities. Illinois electric transmission lines are part of the PJM electric grid, a regional transmission organization that serves a market of over 50 million people in 13 states. Illinois has the strongest winds in the PJM market, which is driving a massive expansion in wind energy development. Currently over 25 existing wind energy sites are operating in Illinois, adding over 2000 mega-watts of power to the states electrical grid. Additional data show that more than 30 new wind projects are in the planning stages bringing the potential for more than 12,000 mega-watts of installed wind power capacity in the coming years. Figure 1

A typical wind farm like White Oak will have the capacity to supply power to more than 40,000 homes. Projects like these will bring thousands of new jobs, tax revenues, and other forms of economic development to the area. In recent years Chicago, with its close proximity to wind sites in the Midwest, has become the home of the wind energy industry in North America. Attracted by well-developed air, rail, and auto transportation infrastructure, several of the world’s largest wind energy companies have opened offices there and now call Chicago home. Illinois-based companies such as Siemens Winergy and Trinity Structural Towers are making Illinois a leader in wind component manufacturing. Fabrication companies and machine shops in Illinois represent a strong potential for turbine component manufacturing, along with other related wind energy components and services.

White Oak’s wind towers will stand about 262 feet high with a blade sweep area of 274 feet. The total overall height will be 397 feet. A typical foundation for this size turbine requires over 300 cubic yards of concrete. Foundation costs have become a significant proportion of the total cost for a wind farm and can impact the overall cost of energy. Figure 2 Therefore, foundation design and selection of materials, along with shorter construction times, are important economic considerations. Mortenson Construction, which is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, is responsible for the design and construction of White Oak’s access roads, foundations, and erection of the turbines. Mortenson has recognized that large wind turbine foundations, with their high strength concrete requirements and limited access roads, have defined the need for high-speed, long-reach concrete placement machines.

Flexible Features
Suburban Chicago-based Loop Belt Industries has developed a telescopic, truck-mounted conveyor belt system that is very mobile, making it ideal for moving to and from the foundation sites on projects like White Oak. Conveyor belts have long since proven their worth on civil projects, and Loop Belt’s introduction is now proving its mettle, easily taking on the challenges of delivering low-slump concrete to wind turbine foundations. The new innovative patent-pending model LB32T4 features a welded tubular steel, four-section, telescopic main boom conveyor that easily covered the entire foundation pour area with only one setup position. The LB32T4 is mounted on an International Workstar 7500 series heavy-duty chassis and features a 350 horsepower engine and twin rear transmission power take-offs, providing robust power for the machine’s hydraulic functions. Loop Belt’s engineers worked closely with the specialists at International to ensure the best possible chassis specification and matchup for mounting the machine. The Workstar 7500 chassis is equipped with Internationals “Diamond Logic” electronic control system, which enables communication between the vehicle components and the Loop Belt equipment to decrease downtime, improve productivity, and optimize maintenance. The Workstar 7500 low cab height dimension is critical, and it allows the machine to be configured for road legal transport. The LB32T4 conveyor is stored over the top of the cab in road transport position and is less than the 13’-6” allowable height dimension indicated by most states bridge regulations. Figure 3

The all-steel welded boom structure is fabricated from high strength structural tubing and features a highly refined design, putting the strength into the critical areas while keeping the overall weight to a minimum. In fact, the LB32T4 paired up with the International 7500 chassis weighs in at less than 54,000 pounds, requiring only three axles to be road legal. The machine’s lower overall weight also results in less outrigger pad reaction forces, making the machine very stabile in a variety of jobsite conditions. Figure 4

Lighter weight is a big plus when maneuvering around and setting up on wind tower foundation sites. With 100 tower foundations to pour at White Oak, Mortenson knows that scheduling and equipment availability are extremely important. The LB32T4 is robustly designed for durability and reliability as well as high-speed performance. The machines vital mechanical systems are well engineered and designed for ease of service and maintenance. High quality components along with excellent craftsmanship make the LB32T4 a valuable high-performance, reliable tool for the wind tower contractor. The integral 18” (457 mm) wide conveyor belt is formed into a U-trough giving it maximum concrete delivery capacity while maintaining an exceptionally clean running operation.

All of the conveyor transition points were designed to run clean and transfer material smoothly. The Loop Belt design is equipped with fully-proportional radio remote controls, so that the operator can easily direct the flow of concrete to any spot in the pour area as directed by the finishing crew. The conveyor belt speeds are also remotely controlled by the operator to match the needs of the contractor and finishing crew from as little as 1 cubic yard per hour up to a maximum pour rate in excess of 300 cubic yards per hour. Figure 5

The powered feed conveyor, also equipped with fully proportional controls, is easily positioned to receive concrete simultaneously from two ready-mix trucks. Mortenson’s General Superintendent Ray Bragg was impressed with Loop Belt’s speed and capacity to empty an eight cubic yard ready-mix truck in only 2 minutes allowing Mortenson to maintain their aggressive foundation-pouring schedule.

Delivering the Goods
Mortenson chose Prairie Materials of Bloomington, Illinois, as their concrete supplier. After the foundation site is excavated, a “mud slab” of 2000 psi concrete is poured to provide a stable base on which to build and pour the foundation. Heavily reinforced with steel rebar, the foundations require about 300 cubic yards of 5000 psi low slump concrete. According to Tom Lombardy of Prairie Materials, the concrete is mixed stiff, with only a 4” slump making it ideal for placement with a belt conveyor.

The LB32T4 machine with its four vertically deployed hydraulic outriggers, sets up quickly in less than 10 minutes, and easily placed the stiff concrete at a rate of four cubic yards per minute. Steve Cottongin, who owns Complete Conveyor Services, operated the LB32T4 on the White Oak Project. “I’m very impressed with the performance of this machine, especially for wind turbine foundations,” he says, recognizing that the designers of the new LB32T4 have paid attention to the details of this machine and designed it for ease of operation, high performance, and with the maintenance mechanic in mind. “Being an owner/operator myself, I appreciate the simplicity and ease at which this machine can be maintained.” Figure 6

Conveyors are not new in the construction world and have proven their worth and can place stone and concrete with little regard to mix type. Conveyors have poured millions of yards of concrete in dams, bridges, and wind projects as well as commercial and residential projects worldwide. Loop Belt’s inventors were part of the original design of the first truck mounted telescopic conveyors, and after 30 years of working on the problems with this type of equipment have designed and built a new machine that they believe is the best working truck mounted conveyor to handle mass amounts of stone and concrete fast, clean, and with pinpoint accuracy.

Future Developments
Located in Glenn Ellyn, Illinois, Loop Belt Industries is dedicated to designing and manufacturing high quality conveyor placing equipment. The company’s future design plans also include the development of larger conveyors, providing additional reach and capacity for large civil projects. Along with its sister company, Illinois Conveyor Enterprises [www.ilconveyor.com], which manufactures conveyor parts and repairs/rebuilds conveyors, the company’s dedicated staff is committed to advancing the role of conveyors in today’s construction markets, especially wind energy.  

Engineers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory use LMS Test.Lab in performing modal testing on next-generation wind power systems destined to radically change America’s energy policies in decades to come. As an inexhaustible, clean and economical way to generate electricity, wind power often tops the list of alterative energy sources for companies around the world facing volatility in fossil fuel prices, supply uncertainties and environmental issues. The “20% Wind Energy by 2030” study published by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in 2008 stated that generating 20% of the country’s electricity from wind power is feasible by the year 2030.

To reach this ambitious goal, efforts are being stepped up to boost U.S. wind capacity to 300 gigawatts (GW), a more than tenfold increase from present levels. In 2008 alone, the United States added more than 8 GW of new installations, bringing the nation’s total wind energy capacity to more than 25 GW—the largest in the world according to the American Wind Energy Association. Figure 1

Generating this much power will take more than building bigger wind turbines, however. According to DOE, the reliability and operability of turbines must improve. Also, with the number of easily accessible high-wind-speed sites dwindling, turbines that operate efficiently in low-speed sites must be developed. All this will require advances in designing, simulating, and testing these next-generation machines, including variable-speed drive trains and advanced controls for adjusting blade pitch to match wind conditions. Figure 2

Tools for Advanced Testing
Work in addressing these requirements is spearheaded by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), DOE’s primary research and development center for wind power. A key element of efforts at NREL’s National Wind Technology Center (NWTC) in Golden, Colorado, is aimed at testing proposed new concepts, as well as improving existing designs, often in connection with industry partners, including wind turbine manufacturers and component suppliers.

In particular, modal testing is performed to identify resonant frequencies of the wind machine. As a nationally certified test facility, the NWTC also performs modal analysis as part of a suite of dynamic vibration tests for certifying wind turbine designs. NREL recently installed an LMS Test.Lab data acquisition and analysis system for performing these modal and vibration tests, and LMS Virtual.Lab software for correlating and updating simulation models. Measurements are made using a 96-channel LMS SCADAS Mobile system consisting of three lightweight, battery-powered, laptop-size units that are easy to carry up into a wind turbine nacelle and between the NWTC and outdoor wind turbine sites. The portable units are less than a third the size and weight of the NWTC’s former cumbersome UNIX-based system. Figure 3

Full Modal Survey
NWTC engineers have already used the LMS system in performing a full system model survey of a specially modified three-bladed 600-kW wind turbine system known as the CART-3, which is used for advanced controls research. With its rotor fixed in a parked position accelerometers were placed on the entire structure, including points on the tower, rotor blades, gearbox, and nacelle. Blades were excited to vibrate with impact from an instrumented hammer. For other parts of the structure, hydraulic shakers were controlled by signals from the LMS SCADAS system, which measured amplitude response of the structure for various input frequencies.

According to NWTC Test Engineer Richard Osgood, one of the major advantages of using the LMS SCADAS Mobile was that it could be used as a distributed data acquisition system, with slave units on the rotor, blades, nacelle, tower, and even a remote meteorological tower to measure wind speeds—all daisy-chained together and connected by fiber-optic cables to a master unit on a truck on the ground at the base of the tower.

“This level of cost and efficiency is important in operations such as ours in which budgets are extremely tight,” he says. “Also, signal loss and background electronic interference was significantly reduced with a distributed system based on fiber optics, so less time is required in correcting for these discrepancies, especially in testing variable-speed drive trains that tend to generate considerable radio-frequency noise.”

Using multiple-input/multiple-output acquisition and analysis capabilities for measured signals, the LMS system created plots—including animated mode-shape displays and frequency response functions (FRFs)—identifying 10 fundamental system modes of vibration of the structure including rotor bending and twisting, blade torsion, and tower fore-aft and side-to-side bending. The LMS system also accurately identified vibration modes often difficult to predict solely through simulation, such as coupled motion between the nacelle, tower, and rotor bending.

Test engineers used LMS Virtual.Lab software to correlate field test measurements with predicted results from a dynamic simulation model developed by NREL wind researchers. Initial evaluations were performed using a Modal Assurance Criteria (MAC) matrix diagram, showing where the experimental and theoretical types of modal data aligned and where they diverged. From this comparison the test engineers were able to provide the dynamist with information confirming simulation predictions and updating simulation modes when discrepancies were found. In addition, experimental identification of the turbine’s drive train frequencies was used to adjust the wind turbine controller and resolve vibration problems occurring during operation of the variable speed power electronics.

Adjusting Simulation Models
“For obtaining accurate predictions of turbine vibration characteristics, test-based modal analysis is critical to adjusting models for a wide range of simulation including finite element analysis, multi-body dynamics, aerodynamics, acoustics, and blade pitch control,” Osgood says.
 

“Stiffness attributes and damping characteristics computed by LMS Test.Lab from modal data is an essential structural parameter needed as inputs to the simulation model to accurately represent structural members as flexible, rather than entirely rigid bodies,” he says. “In this manner, simulations can more accurately predict the realistic bending and twisting motion of components that sometimes can lead to unacceptable deformations and instabilities.” Figure 4

An Integrated System
Osgood notes that having this wide range of capabilities in a single system was an important criterion in their selection process, with LMS Test.Lab providing a fully integrated suite of tools—test setup, control, measurement, signal conditioning, result analysis, data management, and report generation—all in the portable test unit. The LMS PolyMAX feature, for example, automatically highlights resonances so engineers can visually identify natural frequencies in minutes instead of spending hours looking through raw data. With an “Active Pictures” capability, live test data in the form of interactive, animated plots can be cut-and-pasted into Microsoft Office tools like Word and PowerPoint.

Integration of these functions, plus a fast processing speed, enables NWTC engineers to see results immediately after measurements are taken instead of waiting hours or days for post-processing. This fast visualization helps engineers verify the test on the spot, see right away how the structure behaves, get a good insight into the root cause of vibration problems, and easily identify particular areas that need further investigation. Figure 5

“A fully integrated system ensures that all tools we need are compatible and work together properly,” according to Osgood. “If a problem arises there is only one vendor to contact, and LMS has been extremely helpful in getting our engineers up and running on the new system.”

LMS Technology’s Role
“We are certainly honored for LMS technology to have a pivotal role in NREL’s testing operations for advanced wind energy systems,” says LMS Test Division Vice President Bruno Massa. “The selection of LMS for this critical work confirms the trust organizations have in LMS test solutions and demonstrates the effectiveness of the technology in supporting mission-critical applications in a wide range of industries around the world.”  Figure 6

Ever since Heron of Alexandria tapped the wind’s power to operate a musical organ in the first century A.D., engineers and inventors have created imaginative mechanisms for harnessing wind power. Almost all of the ensuing systems have taken advantage of the basic blade design of a windmill, which gets its name because its primary applications until now have involved mills such as grinding mills, sawmills, and hammermills. Today, however, using the wind to turn a generator to produce clean, renewable, and sustainable electric power has become the overarching objective. No longer does the challenge in wind systems development involve how to produce wind-generated power, but how to capture as much of the wind’s power as possible and convert it into electricity.

Of course, electric companies, inventors, and energy entrepreneurs want to develop power-generating wind turbines in an efficient and cost-effective manner. This is no easy task because of the range of engineering, economic, and organizational challenges that they face. Many wind systems developers are tackling the engineering difficulties involved in optimizing wind turbine development by leveraging 3D CAD technology. By using 3D computer-based design tools, designers and engineers can not only create models of new turbine designs but also simulate their performance and optimize their geometries, while using product data management (PDM) software to streamline the entire development process.

3D CAD Eases Offshore
Maximizing the energy potential of the earth’s wind requires building power-generating turbines where the wind is most prevalent. One of these areas—the wind-rich oceans of the world—presents a unique set of engineering challenges that require specialized expertise. The company that developed the first wind turbine towers in 1986 is now using SolidWorks® 3D CAD tools to take on the task of laying the foundations for the burgeoning offshore wind turbine market.

With offices in Denmark and the United Kingdom, Rambøll Wind Energy—part of the Rambøll Group A/S, a global engineering consultancy with more than 8,000 employees and 200 offices worldwide—has delivered the substructures for more than 60 percent of the world’s offshore wind power capacity, which amounts to more than 500 offshore wind turbine towers. Rambøll develops the infrastructure that secures the tower to the ocean floor, including piles, platforms, ladders, and boat landings. The structures, which penetrate up to 30 meters into the seabed, must withstand the constant pounding of tides, waves, and currents, in addition to the loads of the wind tower itself.

In 2007, Rambøll management decided to upgrade its existing 2D design software to a 3D CAD system. Company managers believed that by moving to a 3D CAD platform engineers could consistently and efficiently develop, communicate, and produce the high-quality, innovative designs that would enable the company to continue to grow, according to Filipe Ângelo, a structural engineer in the Esbjerg, Denmark, office.

“It took a lot of time in the previous package to output detailed drawings,” Ângelo recalls. “We were interested in 3D CAD not only as a means for accelerating drawing production but also for taking advantage of improved design visualization, which we believed would make us even more competitive by optimizing the quality of our final product.” Figure 1

Rambøll decided to implement SolidWorks Premium design software because it is easy to use, provides greater flexibility, and improves design communications. Since implementing SolidWorks software in mid-2008, Rambøll has advanced its capacity for developing innovative wind tower designs while simultaneously increasing design accuracy by 20 percent. “SolidWorks enabled an incredible improvement in our final products in terms of detail, quality, and flexibility,” Ângelo notes. “SolidWorks 3D modelling provides a robust and aesthetic overview of the model. With this simple, clean environment, it is much easier to identify design errors and correct them early in the project.”

The improved quality afforded by SolidWorks helps to ensure safe, productive performance during construction and operation of the offshore wind turbine. “With SolidWorks, we can limit obstructions and discover clashes during the design phase so there are no issues when we send the turbine out to the platform,” according to Mike Hallett, senior design engineer in the U.K. office.

Upgrading its development platform to the SolidWorks 3D design system has allowed Rambøll to continue its dominance in offshore wind power—a 60-percent share of the global market. “Innovation has helped us gain a commanding share of the offshore wind turbine market, and SolidWorks is one of the tools that help us to innovate freely,” says Kai Birger Olsen, engineering director at the U.K. office. “SolidWorks enables us to produce better-quality, more-precise preliminary designs faster than our competitors. When a project comes in we can calculate the operation of up to 100 turbines in one go, analyzing many factors such as the wave loads and rapidly produce designs that take them all into consideration.” Figure 2

Simulation Drives Innovation
With a tried and tested design like a windmill, one might think that there’s little potential to improve upon a fundamental design concept that has proven its effectiveness over the centuries. Yet with 3D CAD technology engineers can take the basic geometry of a wind turbine and use simulation tools to optimize it shape in a way that maximizes its ability to catch the wind and turn it into electricity.

For example, just as the angle and intensity of the sun’s rays change throughout the day, wind direction and speed vary widely. Most wind turbines are stationary and constructed to face in the direction of the prevailing winds. However, the ability to adjust the perspective of turbine blades to catch the wind and compensate for sudden changes in wind speed is an innovation that can extend the lifespan and boost the efficiency of wind-based generating systems.

A pioneer in solar power, ADES (Aplicaciones De Energías Sustitutivas), set out to apply the same concept to the wind power market that has made its industry leading solar-tracking systems so successful. Like a flower chasing the sun, the Spanish company’s solar panels include autonomous tracking systems that slowly move the panel so that it remains directly aligned with the sun’s rays throughout the day. ADES engineers believed that they could apply the same approach to wind turbines to not only improve the quality of power output, but also to make them last longer.

The company had used a combination of 2D and 3D design tools until 2007, when management decided to reassess ADES’ design platform in anticipation of an expanded product offering, according to Fabian Riveros, technical office director. “Our entry into the wind turbine market compelled us to look at upgrading our development environment to improve our efficiency,” he recalls. “We needed a single platform within which we could do all of our design work, including simulation. That way we could quickly bring breakthrough products in wind turbine design to market.”

ADES chose SolidWorks Premium 3D design, SolidWorks Simulation Premium analysis, and SolidWorks Flow Simulation CFD (computational fluid dynamics) analysis software because the integrated solution satisfied all of the company’s design requirements and allowed the company to cost-effectively simulate the physical performance of new design concepts.

“We particularly value the SolidWorks Simulation capabilities because we can easily analyze our designs without changing formats or modifying drawings, as we did in the past,” he says. “The integration between applications provides the speed and versatility we need to create innovative products while achieving our productivity goals.” Figure 3

ADES engineers utilized SolidWorks design and simulation software to create the company’s revolutionary single-blade pendular wind turbine. With conventional wind turbine designs, the lack of evenness in intensity and direction, as well as the continuity in wind, can damage both turbines and the electric system to which they are connected. The unique ADES pendular wind turbine employs a downwind construction shape that automatically orients itself toward the wind by means of three passive mechanical systems: a swiveling single-blade rotor, a pendulum power train, and a self-steering nacelle. The design compensates, accumulates, and reinstates wind speed variations, preventing them from affecting the evenness of generator rotation and subsequently diminishing structural overload and power peaks caused by wind gusts. With lower stress loads, the turbine tower has a longer lifespan and requires fewer materials in its construction, thereby lowering the cost.

“The project took just six months with a team of six people,” Riveros says. “Simulation was the key to helping us create this product so quickly and shorten our design cycle by 25 percent.”

ADES débuted its 100 kW and 250 kW pendular wind turbines at last year’s Wind Power Expo Fair in Saragossa, Spain, and is working on 1000 kW and 1600 kW turbine models. Riveros asserts that the versatility of SolidWorks design and simulation software enabled the company to cut in half the time it took to bring this revolutionary product to market. “Because of the benefits SolidWorks provides in terms of design speed, we are more competitive,” Riveros says. “It allows us to come up with fast solutions and provides realistic views and animations of our design projects.”

PDM Energizes Development
An often-overlooked aspect of efficient wind system development is effective management of the large volume of data associated with wind turbine design and production. PDM—particularly when integrated with 3D CAD design software—can also boost productivity in wind systems development, especially when an organization is operating on a large scale, like the wind tower factory at Martifer Energy Systems. Figure 4

Headquartered in Portugal, Martifer comprises 120 companies across 20 countries. The global concern first implemented SolidWorks 3D CAD software at its wind tower factory in 2004. Less than five years later Martifer began a PDM implementation designed to increase efficiency across its organization, according to António Caroço, director of information systems and best practices at Martifer. “The company had grown so quickly that we needed to take our systems and processes to a completely new level,” he explains. “We embarked on a huge transformation program that involved a thorough assessment of our processes, software, and systems in an effort to integrate our design work, take advantage of our diverse expertise, and generate greater efficiencies across the organization.

“Our design groups used to work in silos,” Caroço goes on to say. “We wanted to standardize our software solutions and establish best practices as a strategy for encouraging our divisions to work more closely together. After exploring the product lifecycle management (PLM) concept, we ultimately decided to work with Sqédio [Integrated Technology Solutions] to further customize and expand upon our proven SolidWorks CAD and CAE solutions by adding SolidWorks Enterprise PDM software.”

The implementation of SolidWorks Enterprise PDM software at the Martifer Wind Energy Systems division marked the first step in a company-wide deployment that is designed to solidify best practices and establish standardized workflows across Martifer. In addition to facilitating design revision control, promoting collaboration, and encouraging design reuse, the system has reduced the company’s data storage expenses.

“We view PDM as the key data foundation of the organization and plan on replicating our initial implementation throughout Martifer,” Caroço says. “SolidWorks Enterprise PDM fits our needs because it is easy to learn, requiring minimal training; uses open source code, making it easy to customize; and is integrated with our engineering systems, supporting our goals of formalizing best practices and improving efficiency.” Figure 5

Wind systems development has come a long way since Heron’s quaint wind-powered musical instrument. For today’s wind turbines to play an increasingly greater role in powering the future of renewable energy production, they need to become continually better and more efficient. As the aforementioned examples demonstrate, 3D CAD technology is helping many companies leverage design, simulation, and data management tools to make wind turbine production more efficient, innovative, and cost effective.

The future of wind power rests on developing systems that produce more energy with the same amount of wind. Wind turbines need to last longer, have fewer environmental impacts, and cost less to become an easy alternative to fossil fuels. 3D CAD tools can help today’s wind systems engineers, inventors, and entrepreneurs achieve those goals and reap the full potential of wind-based energy systems. 

Wind-based electricity generation has enjoyed rapid growth over the past 10 years, driven by government incentives and wind’s current status as the lowest cost, most scalable renewable energy option. New wind farms must be located in areas with excellent wind resources, and unfortunately these areas are often far from load centers and have weak transmission infrastructure. This creates a well-documented need for additional transmission capacity, which has been difficult to satisfy due to planning and permitting hurdles that can cause endless delays and cost escalations for new transmission projects. As solar plants increase in size, they will face increasing transmission challenges as well.

It is not always necessary to build new transmission lines to add transmission capacity, however, and technologies exist that enable increases in transmission capacity that cause little or no visible change to the existing transmission infrastructure. While no single technology will solve all transmission related challenges on its own, together these technologies will play an important role in enabling the increased penetration of renewables on the grid. Figure 1

Increasing Transmission Capacity
Many options exist for increasing capacity in the transmission grid, but not all options will find equal acceptance by all stakeholders. As a general rule, if a new right of way (ROW) is required for new transmission infrastructure, a smaller ROW will meet less external resistance than a larger one. Additionally, if an existing transmission ROW can be upgraded to increase capacity with only a small increase in footprint, it will meet even less resistance. In the best-case scenario, transmission capacity can be increased in an existing ROW without expanding the footprint of either the structures or the ROW itself.

Technologies are available today to fulfill this scenario, but each one has its own unique characteristics that make it effective in some situations and ineffective in others. In those cases where all of the requirements for deploying one of these technologies are met, they can offer considerable savings in costs, time, and effort. The technologies include Dynamic Line Rating (DLR), High Temperature Low-Sag Conductors (HTLS), Voltage Uprating, and Flexible AC Transmission Systems (FACTS).

Dynamic Line Rating
To avoid exceeding a transmission line’s thermal constraints, most lines have established a maximum power flow level that cannot be exceeded at any time. This static thermal rating is based on the worst-case scenario with respect to environmental conditions: a hot day with full sun and a very low wind that is typically assumed to be around 2ftps. If the line’s maximum power flow is exceeded under these conditions, the line could sag to the point where it would come into contact with trees, trucks, boats, or other nearby hazards.

However, power levels that would cause unacceptable sag in a transmission line under these conditions may not cause unacceptable sag on a cooler, cloudy, windy day, when the rising temperature caused by current through the line is offset by the colder operating environment and the cooling effect of the wind. Because the environmental conditions are almost never as unfavorable as those used to calculate the static thermal rating of a line, the line’s true maximum capacity is underestimated the vast majority of the time.

Dynamic line rating equipment provides the true maximum capacity of the line based on current environmental conditions, effectively enabling this capacity to be used for power transmission. The amount of capacity enabled in this way can be significant. Vendors of DLR equipment estimate that an increase of 10C in the ambient temperature can increase the rating of a line by over 10 percent, and an increase from no wind to a 1mps wind blowing at a 90-degree angle to the line can increase the rating by over 40 percent. Shadows caused by clouds tend to have a smaller effect, increasing the rating by a couple percent. Rain can have a large impact on the rating as well.

DLR requires additional equipment to be added to the line and an information link to be made to the transmission control system, but it uses the existing line in the existing right of way. Some DLR technologies require the line to be taken out of service as they are installed or calibrated, which can cause disruption, particularly because the technology is often installed on lines that are very heavily loaded. Figure 2

One tradeoff that must be considered when evaluating DLR and other technologies that allow increased current through existing lines is that the losses in transmission lines increase as the square of the current through them. Therefore there is a penalty for running high currents through lines, which makes “high current” technologies more attractive when those higher currents will only be required on a temporary basis, such as during periods of peak demand or when other lines fail.

High Temperature Low-Sag Conductors
Another option for overcoming excessive sag caused by overheating is to reconductor existing transmission lines with high-temperature low-sag (HTLS) conductors. These conductors have special cores that, like traditional conductors, heat up when carrying large amounts of current. However, unlike traditional conductors, they do not sag nearly as much when operating at high temperatures. As a result, a traditional conductor can be replaced by an HTLS conductor with the same weight and diameter, and which uses the existing transmission towers and ROWs, for a significant increase in the line’s thermal rating.

Then why not use them all the time? HTLS conductors are significantly more expensive than traditional cables (costing 1.2 to 6 times more), although when they are used to upgrade an existing line this additional cost is offset by the savings associated with reusing the same right of way and towers, and reduced (or, in some states, eliminated) permitting costs. Additionally, reconductoring does involve construction crews working on a right of way, even though the right of way itself won’t be expanded. And like DLR, the advantage from HTLS conductors comes from enabling operation at higher currents, which can lead to unacceptably high losses. Newer HTLS conductors that use composite materials have a higher conductivity than conventional cables, which reduces the loss penalty at higher currents but does not eliminate it completely. Figure 3

Even with those drawbacks, there are situations where HTLS conductors can play a valuable role, such as long spans over rivers that are particularly sensitive to sag. They can also improve the reliability of the grid without requiring additional lines to be added. In this case, the additional capacity enabled by the ability to carry high currents in the HTLS cable is held in reserve, allowing other lines in the area to increase their capacity. If one of those other lines fails, the HTLS cable can carry the additional load until the down line is repaired. Figure 4

Voltage Uprating
Voltage uprating involves increasing the voltage of a transmission line to the next standard voltage level, which increases the power that can be transmitted through the line without increasing the current. By taking this approach, the line is not brought any closer to its thermal rating and losses are not increased.

Some transmission lines, usually those built years ago, have been overbuilt to the extent that their voltage can be increased with only relatively minor changes to the line itself (e.g., new transformers but reuse of the conductor). In this best-case scenario, an increase in the corona of the line and the line’s electromagnetic field (EMF) may still require an increase in the ROW for the line, which can be very difficult to obtain. However, if those challenges do not apply or can be overcome, voltage uprating is a very attractive option for increasing the capacity of a line.

In most cases, unfortunately, voltage uprating will require a larger conductor or bundled conductors, and larger transformers, among other changes. In this case, permitting and construction crews will be required to install the new conductor and either install new towers or modify the existing towers. The one advantage of rebuilding the line in this way is that it may be possible to use a compact design or bundle the conductors so that the corona and EMF do not require an expanded ROW. This reduces the impact of the upgrade on the footprint of the transmission line and could make planning and permitting easier while reducing costs.

One of the challenges of voltage uprating is that it must be undertaken in relatively large steps: even if only a little more voltage is required to meet additional power flow requirements, the voltage must be increased all the way up to the next standard voltage level if voltage uprating is undertaken. While a small voltage increase may have allowed the use of the same ROW, jumping all of the way up to the next voltage level is likely to push the line beyond the existing ROW limits. As a result, voltage uprating can be an attractive option when large jumps in power are required, but other options may be preferable when only an incremental increase is needed.

Flexible AC Transmission Systems
Flexible AC Transmission System (FACTS) devices play a key role in ensuring transmission system stability and also can increase the amount of capacity available at key points in the transmission grid by routing power flows.

Static VAR compensators (SVCs) and STATCOM devices both provide dynamic reactive power to serve as voltage support to counteract changes to system voltage, including rapid changes such as those due to a line fault. The primary purpose of these devices is to improve system stability, and they do not directly increase the capacity available on a given line. However, with improved control over system stability, it is possible to run transmission lines closer to their limits, so these devices indirectly enable increased transmission capacity in the system.

Series compensation, on the other hand, can be used to increase the available capacity on a given path, although this also occurs in an indirect manner. When there is more than one path between a generator of electricity and a load, the electrical power flows preferentially through the transmission grid down the path of least impedance. Series compensation can reduce the impedance of a line, either statically or dynamically, to increase the load carried by that line and reduce the load carried by parallel paths.

Unified power flow controllers (UPFCs) and phase-shifting transformers both have the ability to directly route real power flows through the transmission network, while UPFCs have the added ability to offer voltage support through functionality similar to that of SVCs and STATCOM devices. UPFCs and phase-shifting devices can be used to route power away from lines that require additional capacity, assuming there is available capacity in a parallel line.

Accelerating Growth in Renewables
While technologies that increase transmission capacity without requiring the acquisition of new rights of way or the undertaking of major construction projects will not always meet the capacity requirements of new renewable energy projects, there are situations where they can help by reducing costs, accelerating timelines, and easing permitting burdens. These technologies provide options to developers that will enable faster growth in renewables while avoiding resistance to new projects that new transmission lines can foster.  

As an active participant in the wind industry, you’ve likely heard or read about the wind-related innovations taking place in and around Portland, Oregon. You may know a bit about Portland’s burgeoning leadership in this arena. When you see the entire picture, however, you truly begin to appreciate the explosive wind scene in progress there.

Portland’s position in the wind arena is both a strategic stance, based on the city’s five-year economic development plan to build the most sustainable economy in the world, and a natural outgrowth of its particular set of attributes developed over time that make increasingly more sense for the local and regional growth of this industry.

As one of the nation’s greenest cities, and a central player in the clean tech cluster economy, Portland and its partners have worked to maximize the competitive environment for local businesses. By positioning these businesses as leaders in the green economy, developing analyses and specific strategies to remove obstacles and address opportunities for growth, Portland is paving the way for big investments in wind power.

The Green Talent Pool
The first reason Portland is leading the way in the wind industry is because it hosts one of the most significant concentrations in the United States of firms in the renewable energy, environmental services, recycling, and green building sectors. In particular, the city is home to a notable number of green building and wind energy firms, including the North American headquarters of both Vestas Americas and Iberdrola Renewables. Many of these companies are already developing and using wind energy resources and providing services for ongoing maintenance of wind installations. Figure 1

Equally important is the growing supply of experienced employees for clean tech firms: the region has built a critical mass of knowledge, expertise, and personnel that isn’t duplicated elsewhere. The Portland area’s renewable energy talent clusters are 84 percent greater than similar-sized regions, and 43 percent greater for environmental services and recycling. Consequently, when clean tech and other green firms are seeking a location to form or expand their businesses, Portland lands at or near the top of the list.

Manufacturing Strength
Portland’s second strength in the wind sector comes from its strong manufacturing base, which presents plenty of opportunities to develop a regional supply chain. The city is primed to work with local companies to help them participate in that business.

Numerous metal and steel companies with a long history of providing transportation equipment products use high technology tools to produce a finished product or part or enhance manufacturing capabilities, all of which fit well with the needs of the wind industry. Such manufacturers can supply the wind industry with rotors, generators, towers, and other components needed for wind turbines. In some cases companies have already launched their new role in the supply chain.

Ready for Action
Third, Portland is primed for action. Both Portland General Electric (PGE) and Pacific Power were early entrants to the wind market, giving Oregon a jump on the competition for installed wind projects, and creating new opportunities for regional manufacturing firms to provide repair and maintenance services for wind turbines. Nationally, Oregon and Washington rank fourth and fifth respectively for installed wind power.

Total installed and under construction wind capacity is more than 5,263 megawatts in Washington and Oregon, providing one of the largest installed markets in the U.S. The region’s strong environmental policies, which drove early adoption of aggressive renewable portfolio standards and tax credits, have also encouraged demand.

By sourcing regionally, owners and operators can reduce transportation costs and shorten lead times for replacement parts, decreasing overall operational costs. The Northwest has competitive, established firms that can provide raw steel, fabrication of large castings, hydraulic systems, gearbox repair/services, machining capabilities, and fiberglass operations. Other opportunities include electronics, metal shredding, blasting, coatings, and heat-treating. Figure 2

The Portland region’s deep bench in the manufacture of highly specialized engineered metal includes EVRAZ/Oregon Steel (raw steel), Oregon Iron Works, Gunderson, and Vigor Industrial (machining, fabrication, and assembly work). Each of these firms brings existing infrastructure, an experienced labor force, and large sites and buildings, as well as accessible locations near transportation corridors linked by rail, barge, and freeway to existing markets.

Building Capacity
The fourth reason Portland is paving the path in the wind arena is because it has put an array of tools to work on behalf of its regional wind suppliers, using partnerships, technical and financial assistance, and networking and promotion to help companies meet potential new customers and advance their specialized expertise.

Partnering for Lean Processes
For wind companies to supply original equipment manufacturers they need to understand the importance of Lean, 6 Sigma, and ISO 9000. A recent multimillion-dollar grant from the U.S. Department of Labor to the Oregon Manufacturing Extension Partnership (OMEP) addresses that need, offering workforce training and supply chain development for regional companies involved in the renewable energy sector or those interested in entering that sector. The technical assistance includes helping existing and new supplier companies incorporate lean processes into their production to improve quality and increase efficiency. Portland manufacturers receiving OMEP assistance have experienced overall productivity improvements of between 40-60 percent, resulting in increased sales, job creation and retention, and a resumption of the manufacture of previously off-shored items.

Financing
The City of Portland and the Portland Development Commission (PDC), as its economic development agency, work with the State of Oregon to offer competitive tax incentives that foster the growth and prosperity of manufacturing businesses. Financing programs address working capital, equipment purchase, real estate acquisition, tenant improvements, property development, and façade improvements.

Creating Connections
This past spring a team of Portland-Vancouver businesses and public officials attended WINDPOWER 2010, the world’s largest wind power event hosted by the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA). Calling themselves “The Pacific Northwest Wind Team” the trade show group included industry leaders from eight wind supply chain companies, as well as regional economic development representatives. Collectively, the delegation showcased the region’s manufacturing expertise, identified potential business opportunities, and sparked the development of a regional network for the industry. Through the WINDPOWER partnership the region’s suppliers generated new sales and business leads, and gained a better understanding of how they fit in the industry.

PDC also led the way in helping the WINDPOWER show attendees access MarketLink, a service launched by the Oregon Microenterprise Network and based on economic gardening tenets, which focus on creating a nurturing environment for existing companies rather than recruiting businesses from elsewhere. MarketLink provided customized market research, competitive intelligence, and industry and sales lead generation to new suppliers who wanted to diversify into the growing wind industry but needed additional information on markets, customers, and competitors. Figure 3

In addition to efforts such as the AWEA show, PDC facilitates monthly meetings to encourage collaborations among government, non-profit, and member associations focusing on this cluster. By coordinating efforts PDC has been able to partner, leverage, and coordinate efforts to assist the industry. Additional assistance has taken the form of “matchmaking”—inviting regional suppliers to pitch their services and capabilities to major owners/operators, including Vestas, Iberdrola, PGE, and others. These buyers have identified parts and services they prefer to source regionally, and in turn the sellers and suppliers are learning more about demand, requirements, and processes.

Connection takes place online, as well, with The Northwest Connectory, which is a recent addition to the toolkit [www.nwconnectory.com]. The Connectory is an online database that contains detailed profiles of Pacific Northwest companies in all industries at every level of the supply chain, including their capabilities, products, and services. The purpose of the tool is to link Oregon businesses to opportunities around the region via a robust, searchable, online buyer-supplier database. It’s a free service, supported by Business Oregon and PDC and managed by the Pacific Northwest Defense Coalition.

Recent Successes
Last, leadership can only be claimed if it’s backed by a positive track record, and Portland has that. Recently announced expansions by major players in the wind industry point to the growing success of Portland’s strategic focus. Vestas, Iberdrola, and Moventas have all announced their commitment to expand in the metro area, strengthening the region’s leadership position in wind supply and development. Figure 4

• Vestas Americas is the world’s largest manufacturer of wind turbines. This giant established an early stronghold in the Pacific Northwest and strong company growth has allowed it to relocate its North American headquarters to Portland’s Pearl District. A former Meier & Frank warehouse is slated to become home to a new LEED-Platinum, 172,000 square-foot headquarters, with completion in 2012. The company, now staffed at 400 employees, has committed to adding 100 jobs within the next five years.
• Iberdrola Renewables has its North American headquarters and 400 employees in Portland, and it continues to expand in the city. The company recently invested in a new advanced wind energy control facility. This control center allows Iberdrola to monitor its U.S. wind turbines, wind farms, and substations. Approximately 25 full-time employees work at the control center. Iberdrola will likely add workers as the company expands its wind capacity in the United States.
• Moventas, a Finland-based supplier of wind turbine gears, is expanding its existing facility in Portland for gear service and repairs. The company will add a new assembly production line to keep up with regional growth.

With these significant investments, an array of promising new prospects for local businesses, and the region’s continued commitment to its fast-growing wind industry base, Portland is a competitive business environment for wind power, worthy of participation from companies around the world.