By Norman Quesnel, Senior Member of Marketing Staff
Advanced Thermal Solutions, Inc.
(This article will be featured in an upcoming issue of Qpedia Thermal e-Magazine, an online publication dedicated to the thermal management of electronics. To get the current issue or to look through the archives, visit http://www.qats.com/Qpedia-Thermal-eMagazine. To read the preceding post on Cooling Solar Power Inverters, click https://www.qats.com/cms/2016/11/21/industry-developments-cooling-solar-power-inverters.)
Wind power systems capture natural air currents and convert them, first to mechanical energy and then electricity. Windmills have long harnessed natural, renewable wind currents to grind grains and pump water. Now those windmills have evolved into highly engineered wind turbines, with very long, highly-engineered blades spinning on steel towers some that are tens of meters high.
There are some relatively small wind turbines that power individual houses or businesses. They can generate around 100 kW of power. But most of today’s wind turbine industry is for utility-scale power generation. These are large, tall wind turbines, in fields of dozens or hundreds, delivering high levels of electricity to power grid systems that reach thousands of end users. More than a quarter million of such turbines are in use around the world.
Fig. 1. The Alta Wind Energy Center in California has more than 600 wind turbines and can produce more than 1.5 GW of power. [1]
Most utility-scale wind turbines are built on open, naturally windy land or off-shore. Each turbine can produce 1.0-1.5 MW, enough energy to power hundreds of homes. The United States has about 75 GW of installed wind power capacity. And, despite some local resistance, the U.S. has begun to join other countries with off-shore installations. China has by far the most installed wind power capacity at about 150 GW. Globally, the combined power capacity from wind turbines is forecast to nearly double between 2016 and 2020 to 792 GW. This would be enough to power 220 million average homes in the U.S. [2, 3]
Mechanics of Wind Turbines
When natural wind blows past a turbine, its blades capture the energy and rotate. This rotation spins a shaft inside the rotor. The shaft is connected to a gearbox that can increase the speed of rotation. The gearbox connects to a generator that produces electricity. Most wind turbines consist of a steel tubular tower. On top of this is a nacelle structure, housing the turbine’s shaft, gearbox, generator and controls.
On the wind-facing end of the nacelle is a hub to which the turbine blades are attached. Together, the blades and the hub are called the rotor. The diameter of the rotor determines how much energy a turbine can generate. The larger the rotor, the more kinetic energy is harnessed. Furthermore, a larger rotor requires a taller tower, which exposes the rotor to faster winds. [4]
A wind turbine is equipped with wind assessment equipment, including weather vanes. These send data to a computer to automatically rotate the turbines into the face of the wind and to a pitch system that can angle the blades to further optimize energy capture. [5]
Fig. 2. The major components of a wind turbine. [6]
Turbines and Fire
Hundreds of wind turbines catch fire each year. The most common cause is lightning strikes, but overheated equipment can also be responsible. Highly flammable materials such as hydraulic lubrication oil and plastics are in close proximity to machinery and electrical wires inside the nacelle. A fire can ignite from faulty wiring or overheating. The results are catastrophic. The rush of oxygen from high winds can quickly expand a fire inside a nacelle. Once a fire starts, it is not likely to be deliberately extinguished. Water hoses can’t reach a nacelle’s height and wind turbines like these are typically set in remote locations, far from emergency aid. [7]
Fig. 3. A wind turbine’s blazing nacelle and hub at a wind farm in Germany. Lubricating oil is often the fuel when these fires occur. [8]
Electronic Devices in the Nacelle – and Heat
Most wind turbines don’t catch fire, of course. Yet, despite all the surrounding wind, the electronics in their nacelles still need significant thermal management to function continuously. The most important electronics are the generator and power converting devices.
The generator is the heart of a wind turbine. It converts the rotational energy of the wind-spun rotor into electrical energy. It generates the electric power that the wind turbine system feeds into the grid.
Generating electricity always entails the loss of heat, causing the generator’s copper windings to get hot. Larger capacity generators are even further challenged. The thermal losses will increase with the generator in proportion to the cube of its linear dimensions, resulting in a serious decline in generator efficiency.[9]
Excess generator heat must be dissipated to maintain efficiency and avoid damage. On most wind turbines this is accomplished by enclosing the generator in a duct, using a large fan for air cooling. Some manufacturers provide water-cooled generators that can be used in wind turbines. The water-cooled models require a radiator in the nacelle to void the heat from the liquid cooling matrix.
Wind turbines may be designed with either synchronous or asynchronous generators, and with various forms of direct or indirect connection to the power grid. Direct grid connection means that the generator is connected to the (usually 3-phase) alternating current grid.
Wind turbines with indirect grid connections typically use power converters. These can be AC-AC converters (sometimes called AC/DC-AC converters). They change the AC to direct current (DC) with a rectifier and then back to usable AC using an inverter. In this process, the current passes through a series of Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor switches (IGBTs). These convert direct current into alternating current to supply to the grid by generating an artificial sine wave. The more frequently the switch is turned on and off, the closer to a true sine wave the current flow becomes, and the more sine-like the flow, the purer the power. The resulting AC is matched to the frequency and phase of the grid. [10]
However, the faster these switches actuate, the more heat they develop and given a wind turbine’s variable inputs, IGBTs for this application need to cycle very frequently. This generates large amounts of heat that will dramatically decrease overall efficiency unless properly cooled. [11]
Fig. 4. An active air cooling system inside a wind turbine nacelle features an air-to-air heat exchanger for managing heat in the generator (Vensys). [12]
Even with efficiency improvements, a wind turbine’s power generation systems and subsystems must manage ever increasing heat within its limited nacelle space. In addition, even if incurred power losses are as little as 3-5 percent, thermal management systems would have to dissipate 200-300 kW and more of heat.
Air cooling has been used effectively in small-scale wind turbines, but it is not practical for removing the heat produced in MW-scale units. Its thermal capacity is so low that it is difficult to blow enough air across a motor or through the converter to maintain reliable operating temperatures. That is why water cooling is used more often than air for larger wind turbines.
Fig. 5. Electronics in a medium voltage (Up to 12 MW) wind turbine converter. Cooling is provided by a closed-loop unit with a mix of deionized water and glycol (ABB).[13]
However, water cooled systems are relatively large, and their thermal efficiency limitations force the size and weight of power generation sub-systems to essentially track their power throughput. Due to the thermal performance limitations of water, the power-generation equipment for a 10 MW wind turbine is nearly twice the size and weight of a 5 MW model. This is largely because water cooling cannot adequately remove additional heat loads without spreading them out.
One supplier of liquid cooling systems for wind turbine electronics is Parker Hannifin. Its Vaporizable Dielectric Fluid (VDF) system provides heat transfer capability significantly greater than that of water. The VDF system requires less fluid and lower pump rates. The same dissipation rates provided by a 6 liter/minute water flow can be achieved by 1 liter/minute VDF flow, thus allowing for a smaller system.
The hermetically sealed VDF assembly is designed to be leak proof, but if a leak occurs the non-conductive fluid will not damage electronic components. The cooling system’s efficiencies and lack of thermal stack-up provide an additional advantage in that the system maintains a fairly tight temperature range. The lack of thermal cycling removes a strain on the turbine’s electronics, which extends their useful life. [14]
Figure 6. Dual-phase liquid cooling method for converters has a circulating refrigerant in a closed-loop. Vaporizing coolant removes heat from devices and re-condenses to liquid in a heat exchange (Parker). [15]
Conclusion
Heat issues in wind turbine electronics mainly concern the generator and the power conversion electronics. The heat load of the generator comes from copper wire resistance and from iron loss from the rotation of the core. Further heat loss is mechanical due to friction. These energy losses become heat energy that is distributed into the wind turbine nacelle.
The excess heat from the nacelle-based power conversion systems is mainly due to impedance from electronic components such as capacitors and thyristors. Higher temperatures will reduce the system’s life and increase failure rate. Thermal management methods such as liquid cooling can be effectively adapted for nacelle electronics. [10]
References
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alta_Wind_Energy_Center
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power_by_country
3. http://www.ozy.com/fast-forward/how-twinning-tech-will-power-our-future/71993
4. Layton, Julia, How Wind Power Works, HowStuffWorks.com.
5. http://www.awea.org/Resources/Content.aspx?ItemNumber=900&navItemNumber=587
6. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/smart-grid-energy-harvesting-martin-ma-mba-med-gdm-scpm-pmp
7. http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/newsandeventspggrp/imperialcollege/newssummary/news_17-7-2014-8-56-10
8. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYoQ6mS2gss
9. http://ele.aut.ac.ir/~wind/en/tour/wtrb/electric.htm
10. Jian, S., Xiaoqian, M., Shuying, C. and Huijing, G., Review of the Cooling Technology for High-power Wind Turbines, 5th Intl Conf on Advanced Design and Manufacturing Engineering, 2015.
11. http://www.windpowerengineering.com/design/mechanical/cooling-electronics-in-a-hot-nacelle/
12. http://www.vensys.de/energy-en/technologie/generatorkuehlung.php
13. https://library.e.abb.com/public/430f5f2493334e4ead2a56817512d78e/PCS6000%20Rev%20B_EN_lowres.pdf
14. http://www.windsystemsmag.com/article/detail/60/cool-system-hot-results
15. http://buyersguide.renewableenergyworld.com/parker-hannifin-renewable-energy-solutions/pressrelease/parker-to-launch-converter-cooling-systems-for-1mw-wind-turbines-at-husum-wind-energy-2012.html
For more information about Advanced Thermal Solutions, Inc., its products, or its thermal management consulting and design services, visit www.qats.com or contact ATS at 781.769.2800 or ats-hq@qats.com.
