Tamil Nadu Wind Farm, India
Twenty wind turbines have completed the 25.5MW Tamil Nadu Muppandal wind farm on the southern tip of India. The 20 turbines have added 17MW of power to the 8.5MW produced by ten that were erected between March and April 2005. Gamesa Eólica received the order for the G58-850kW turbines from Indian company Pioneer Asia Wind Turbines.
The total contract was for €10.5m. The towers, blades and components of the nacelle were assembled locally by Pioneer Asia. The wind farm is helping to reduce India's reliance on fossil fuels, and will reduce emissions by an estimated 50,000t CO2 equivalent a year.
REDUCES HEAVY INDIAN RELIANCE ON COAL
India is a heavy coal user, and the turbines will help overcome this reliance on a polluting fossil fuel. It is estimated that wind energy is around 2% of the total solar energy reaching the Earth. That represents almost 2 billion tons of oil equivalent (TOE) a year, or 200 times that consumed by all the world's countries. However, only a small fraction can be used in practice.
The wind energy harnessed at a particular site is proportional to the air density, the sweep surface and the cube of the wind speed. Indian Windpower reports that the gross wind potential in Tamil Nadu is 3,050MW, with technical potential of 1,880MW.
Pioneer Asia of Sivakasi is a leading industrial group in South Tamil Nadu, with over 50 years in various markets. It has a turnover above 2.5bn Indian Rupees.
TEN MACHINES ALREADY IN PLACE
Gamesa specialises in sustainable energy technologies, mainly wind power. The 850kW turbines are for medium and high winds, to class IA/WZII/WZIII for high wind sites.
The generator's drive train has a main shaft supported by two spherical bearings that transmit the side loads directly to the frame through the bearing housing. This prevents the gearbox from being subjected to extra loads. The generator is a doubly fed machine (DFM) whose speed and power is controlled through IGBT converters and PWM (pulse width modulation) electronic control. This gives active and reactive power control, with low harmonic content and minimal losses.
Aerodynamic primary braking is by full-feathering the blades, with a hydraulically activated mechanical disc brake for emergencies, mounted on the gearbox high-speed shaft. The aerodynamic design of the fibreglass blades and Gamesa's NRSTM control system minimise noise emissions. Gamesa's SGIPE provides remote monitoring and control with web access.
Gamesa is the market leader in Spain and an important wind generator manufacturer with a world market share in 2007 above 15%. It has installed almost 13,000MW of its main product lines in 20 countries over four continents.
The annual equivalent of this production amounts to more than 2.78 million tons of petroleum (TEP)/year and prevents the emission into the atmosphere of more than 20.6 million tons of CO2/year.
The company has its own design and technological development for wind turbines, as well as production capacity for blades, root joints, blade moulds, gearboxes, generators, converters and towers. It can also assemble the wind turbines. The company offers a wide product range with two robust, reliable platforms with outputs of 850kW and 2.0MW.
RENEWABLES PILOT PROJECTS
Tamil Nadu Energy Development Agency has implemented various pilot programmes for wind, solar and bio energy. TEDA is a leading provider of wind power in India, with 61% of the national installed capacity. The first private sector wind farm in the country was set up in Tamil Nadu in 1990. TEDA now has the single largest area of private wind farms, with an installed capacity over 415MW. TNEB (Tamil Nadu Electricity Board) buys energy from the wind farm.
India is one of the world leaders in installed wind power generation with an installed capacity of 6,270MW at December 2006.