Browse Topic: Wind power
The path toward carbon-neutral mobility represents one of the greatest cultural transformations in recent human history. Positioned between industrial heritage, emerging mobility technologies, and the energy supply sector are the users of 1.5 billion motor vehicles worldwide. Conflicting publications on raw material availability, energy efficiency, and the climate neutrality of propulsion systems have led to widespread uncertainty. This Illustrated Energy Primer provides a new foundation for orientation. It begins with a visual explanation of the basic concepts of energy and power, followed by illustrative comparisons of typical energy demands in vehicles and households. The focus then shifts to common types of energy generation systems. Using regional examples—from coal-fired power plants to wind farms, solar installations, and balcony solar panels—the guide provides clear and accessible performance benchmarks for energy production. Next, nine individual experience profiles highlight
NASA engineers have developed a new approach to mitigating unwanted motion in floating structures. Ideally suited to applications including offshore wind energy platforms and barges, the innovation uses water ballast as a motion damping fluid. Various designs have been developed to suit a number of different configurations depending on the specific applications.
Mitigating environmental impacts is ever more crucial as wind energy technology expands to help meet the Nation’s goal of achieving a carbon pollution-free power sector by 2035 and net zero emissions economy by no later than 2050.
Ice build-up on aircraft and wind turbines can impact the safety and efficiency of their systems.
NASA engineers have developed a new approach to mitigating unwanted motion in floating structures. Ideally suited to applications including offshore wind energy platforms and barges, the innovation uses water ballast as a motion damping fluid.
Solar power is abundant — when the Sun is shining. Wind power is steady — when the wind is blowing. And a power grid is extremely convenient — until there’s an outage. But creating a steady supply of electricity from intermittent power sources is a challenge. NASA was focused on this problem more than 45 years ago, when the agency designed a new type of liquid battery during the energy price shocks of the 1970s.
The ability to precisely control electrical voltages on a large scale has made possible many efficient, powerful innovations, from high-speed electric trains to wind turbines to electric drive motors for everything from heavy earthmoving equipment to personal electric vehicles (EVs). But the equipment that manages this process — including power inverters, thyristors and variable-speed drives — requires high-performance power electronics cooling. As temperatures rise,the efficiency, reliability, and life spans of these devices drop, and the power electronics inside HEVs and EVs are no exception. Advancements in power electronic thermal management technologies will enable next generation automotive to fulfill increasingly demanding mission objectives. DC-DC converter and inverter systems slated for higher performances, reliable and sustainable applications. Even with very high efficiencies, the components of these systems produce kilowatts of power loss in the form of heat. The current
Variable renewable energy (VRE), such as photovoltaic solar and wind turbines, will require new approaches to buffering energy within the grid. This must include significant ancillary services and longer duration storage to buffer seasonal variations in supply and demand. Such services may be economically provided by leveraging the battery resources of electric vehicles (EVs) for frequency response and energy storage for durations of up to a few hours, together with baseload and dispatchable power for longer duration buffering. Impact of Electric Vehicle Charging on Grid Energy Buffering discusses the unsettled issues and requirements needed to realize the potential of EV batteries for demand response and grid services, such as improved battery management, control strategies, and enhanced cybersecurity. Hybrid and fuel cell EVs have significant potential to act as “peakers” for longer duration buffering, and this approach has the potential to provide all the long-term energy buffering
Dr. Brandon Ennis, Sandia National Laboratories’ offshore wind technical lead, had a radically new idea for offshore wind turbines: instead of a tall, unwieldy tower with blades at the top, he imagined a towerless turbine with blades pulled taut like a bow.
Researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Cambridge, have developed a new method to dramatically extend the lifetime of organic aqueous flow batteries, improving the commercial viability of a technology that has the potential to safely and inexpensively store energy from renewable sources such as wind and solar.
This article presents an original methodology for the multi-objective optimization of Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT) for a wind turbine (WT). The objective functions of this optimization problem are to minimize the weight and maximize efficiency. This methodology also considers the variations of parameters caused by different factors (manufacturing tolerance, uncertainties in the operating conditions). Using a probabilistic model, the proposed algorithm combines a propagation of uncertainties and an optimization of the function objectives. The optimization is performed using the Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm (NSGA-II) with the advantage of exploring the global design space and finding the best compromise between the objectives. In order to verify the solution obtained by this approach, results were compared to the ones obtained by a previous study.
Given their high-power density, large range of speed change, and reputation of being quieter than counter-shaft gear sets, planetary gear sets (PGS) have advantages to be applied in electric vehicle (EV) applications. Since electric drive unit (EDU) designs are often subject to accelerated development timelines with more versatile gear set layouts than conventional automotive transmissions, accurate prediction of PGS load sharing is needed. In the past, PGS load sharing imbalance used to be considered as a gear set problem focusing only on the effect to gear performance. Finding a closed-form formula has been a focus in gear design. However, early bearing failure in wind turbine gearboxes exposed the limitation of this strategy. With extensive field and laboratory testing, engineers started to notice that load sharing imbalance is essentially a system issue. Non-torque loads on PGS should be considered in the estimation by a gearbox system model. In this study, a virtual design
, a Dutch-based startup and a spinoff from the University of Groningen, developed an inventive way to store offshore renewable energy where it is produced: offshore.
This study proposes a self-powered and aerodynamically robust design of an EV. The vehicle design is proposed using the principles of bio mimicry following the standard procedures of transportation design. Speedform (a primitive form of the vehicle design generally considered as the visual vocabulary for transportation design) was developed computationally using AutoCAD. To enhance the Aerodynamic robustness of the vehicle, unique Aerodynamic Spoilers were proposed. VAWT (Vertical Axis Wind Turbine) incorporated with the Aerodynamic spoilers helps in generating the required power for the vehicle. The final external design of the vehicle was modelled on AutoDesk MAYA. The enhanced down force and reduced air drag were analyzed using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). The realizable k-e turbulence model was used for the CFD analysis on ANSYS Fluent. Drag coefficient, lift coefficient and velocity contours were considered for optimizing and validating the geometry.
For years, spring set/electrically released brakes have provided failsafe braking and holding in a multitude of applications. Generally mounted on a motor or drive shaft, the brakes offer holding and dynamic stopping in applications ranging from large wind turbines to small servo motors. Specially designed brake controls are a critical factor of brake performance in any application.
Combustion engines using alternative and/or renewable fuels are vital to reduce emission of greenhouse gases. The property of such fuels may vary significantly. The heat release rate of bio and natural gas varies of natural reasons, which is known to cause problems when used in internal combustion engines. Hydrogen is an attractive renewable fuel that has a high potential to reduce greenhouse gas emission. Bio and natural gas can be mixed with hydrogen and the content may vary depending on the availability, e.g., depending on the production from solar and wind power. Variations in the fuel property reduces the engine efficiency, unless the combustion phase is estimated and the ignition (combustion) timing is adapted to compensate for the varying fuel property. Hereby the drivability can be improved, and the fuel consumption decreased significantly, reducing the total cost of ownership and emission of greenhouse gases. However, there is not yet any widespread industrially available
Electric passenger car with floor battery usually have its front boot space empty and the space is used as additional luggage storage. This space can be utilized to capture the wind energy and generate electricity. Based on this, the objective of this work is to perform an aerodynamic analysis of an electric passenger car using wind turbine placed at the front. Initially the aerodynamic analysis of a basic electric car model is performed and further simulated using wind turbines and aerodynamic add-on-devices. The simulation is carried-out using ANSYS Fluent tool. Based on the simulation result, scaled down optimized model is fabricated and tested in wind tunnel for validation. The result shows reduction of drag coefficient by 5.9%.
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