EcoLogic Blog

Acciona Windpower, a Spanish manufacturer of wind turbines, introduced their new and enormous 3-megawatt (MW) wind turbine and had a full-scale nacelle on display. The nacelle is the part of the turbine that sits on top of the shaft and houses machinery like the gear box, low- and high-speed shafts, generator, controller and brake.

The AW-3000 turbine has the largest swept area of any 3 MW machine on the market. It comes with three rotor diameters options of 328, 358, or 380 feet and a concrete shaft of 328 or 394 feet high. Its nacelle has anti-slip surfaces (good thing from that height), noise insulation and fireproof materials.

This is the “nose” of the nacelle, and those giant gaping holes are where the blades fit in.

In North America, the AW-3000 will be manufactured at a plant Iowa. Acciona says the wind turbine should be available in 2009.

Here are a few of the more innovative and interesting small wind turbines designs I’ve found at Windpower 2008.

This turbine is from Dallas-based BroadStar Windsystems (one of the new American turbine designers I found). This AeroCam turbine can be used on top of urban buildings (picture several of them across the top of a stadium, for example) and even in between typical turbines at a rural wind farm. What’s more, BroadStar claims that this turbine can achieve $1 per watt installed.

This small turbine is from IR Windpower. They currently manufacture both large and small designs throughout Asia, but they’re eying the European and U.S. markets next

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This turbine from KR Windpower stands only about 4-5 feet off the ground. The company is based in Korea, with offices in China and California:

And finally, the always attractive SkyStream turbine by Southwest WindPower. This is the model George Bush Sr. installed at his Kennebunkport home:

This is a blade of utility-scale wind turbine - the size you might see at a large wind farm that provides energy for a big electric utility. The blade is made by the Danish company Vestas, the largest turbine manufacturer in the world. This week the company announced its new research and development facility will be located in Houston.