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Risø DTU gains EU funding to develop vertical axis wind turbine

Wednesday, 18 August 2010 16:39

9033_darrieus_offshore_wind_turbine_denmark

Image: EWEA / Dervaux

The Danish National Laboratory for Sustainable Energy, Risø DTU, has been granted DKK 20 million from the EU to develop an offshore Darrieus type wind turbine, reports professional journal Ingeniøren (The Engineer). The Darrieus Wind Turbine is named after its inventor, the French aeronautical engineer Georges Jean Marie Darrieus, and dates back to 1927. It is a vertical axis turbine, which means that the main rotor shaft runs vertically, while many wind turbines in use today have horizontal axes. Risø DTU will explore the potential of a new and simple offshore wind turbine where the key principle will be simplicity and reliability. The wind turbine is currently on the drawing board, but the plan is to make a low power model, which can be scaled up at a later stage. The scientists will look at whether the advantages of the vertical axis wind turbine outweigh the disadvantages.

Troels Friis Pedersen, research specialist at Risø DTU says: "When you scale up horizontal axis wind turbines, the gravitational force has increasing influence on the design of the blades, but for vertical axis wind turbines the gravitational force does not contribute significantly to fatigue stress in the blades. On the other hand you get more challenge concerning the aerodynamic forces which become significantly more varied. So it is a balance to weigh the gravitational forces and the aerodynamic forces against each other."

Helge Aagaard Madsen, an aerodynamic expert at Risø DTU who is also part of the project, comments: "We have been looking at this concept for the last couple of years and we want to see whether it is realistic to make such a different turbine with such few movable parts. The simple design means it is less expensive to make than ordinary wind turbines, and it must be less expensive than ordinary wind turbines if it is to have a chance."

The Danish project is part of an international research project with 12 partners headed by senior scientist Uwe Schmidt Paulsen at Risø DTU.

Source: Denmark.dk, Image: EWEA / Dervaux