Siemens Announces Distributed Power Generation Pilot Project for 50kW Vertical Wind Turbine
Siemens Industry Inc.’s Drive Technologies Division has launched a pilot program partnership with Boston-based Eastern Wind Power to test several new solutions for decentralized power generation in the small-mid range. Siemens will provide drive train solutions for small-scale or micro power generation projects between 30kW-900kW.
"This is an extremely fast moving business segment, and our Drive Technologies Division is well-positioned to provide complete drive train solutions for OEMs targeting decentralized power generation," said Razvan Panaitescu, business development manager of the distributed power generation and microgrids sector for Siemens Drive Technologies Division.
"Our cooperation with Eastern Wind Power will allow Siemens to gather significant information on future products, and will provide data to support what we feel is the next generation of green initiatives, or what we call the 4C’s of the tomorrow’s energy landscape - Create, Convert, Control and Conserve. The aim is to provide all of the basic building blocks for system integrators or OEM’s that would like to build solutions for localized power generation, distribution and storage and install them into commercial buildings, neighborhoods, farms and micro or smart grids."
Siemens partnered with Eastern Wind Power for a proposed six-month pilot program in which the two parties integrated a Siemens 55kW permanent magnet generator and Energy Conversion System within the first prototype of Eastern Wind Power’s Vertical Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT).
The project is being conducted at Martha’s Vineyard Airport in Edgartown, Massachusetts where the airport manager and staff have enthusiastically lent their support. Eastern Wind Power believes its Sky Farm(TM) concept of mounting between 10-20 50kW VAWT’s on the roofs of commercial or residential high-rise buildings is the most efficient way to produce on-site distributed green energy in urban areas which are land-poor but building-rich.
"Working with Siemens’ engineers we have now fully commissioned the turbine and are producing power for the airport," said Jonathan Haar, President of Eastern Wind Power. "We are excited about our partnership with Siemens, and believe that this pilot project will validate our efforts, yielding much needed progress in distributed power networking within our nation’s cities."
According to Haar, the company’s 50kW VAWT on a high-rise can generate approximately 45,000 kWh of electricity annually - equal to the electricity needed to power about seven residences for 12 months.
"Our 50kW VAWT can handle turbulent urban winds, runs virtually silently, does not harm avian life, and can be easily mounted and connected to a power grid. Its small scale is aesthetically acceptable to community standards. A 10 unit Sky Farm 50kW will generate enough electrical energy to supply about 10 percent of a typical 500,000 square-foot high-rise building’s electrical power needs," adds Haar.
The turbine is connected to the NSTAR grid, the largest Massachusetts-based investor-owned electric and gas utility. The companies are logging real time data including kilowatt output credited to the airport, temperature, wind speed, and wind direction. Upon completion of small wind safety certification this winter, the companies expect to build an install a second unit atop a high-rise building in Boston for further testing.
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