Knowledge centre for innovation, documentation and demonstration of wind turbine components

The intention with the project has been to develop an outline of a concept for a knowledge centre for innovation for the wind turbine industry and to develop and describe a business plan and a plan for establishing the centre in order to decide whether or not to proceed with the building the centre. The project report includes a detailed description of how the innovation activities in the supply chain of the Danish wind industry can be strengthened by establishing a research and knowledge centre for components and systems in wind turbines. The suppliers in the wind industry are facing increasing demands og improved reliability and more accurate ligetime assessment of their components - especially when it comes to the strenous conditions offshore. A modern wind turbine consists of a complex system with a very large number of different components. The components are subjected to strains from two sides - both from the loads that are transmitted from the blades and from the varying balance in the grid. The large and small components in the nacelle are placed in a cross field between these two types of strain. Knowledge of the whole system that transforms the wind energy to electricity in the grid is a vital foundation for developing turbine subsystems. The project has thoroughly analysed whether the solution should be detailed knowledge of the entire transmission system or focus should be on specific areas e.g. hydraulics which directly involves Danish suppliers. Other countries, e.g. USA and Spain, plan to invest or have invested considerable resources in transmission system test and research facilities. The project concludes that a test facility containing the entire transmission system i.e. the large model is the only solution if Denmark is to maintain the position as a leading wind power nation. There are a number of apparent advantages in establishing the centre: - Creating a knowledge environment that interacts with the supplier companies in designing and improving components. - New products, subsystems and even companies will be the result of the interaction both between the knowledge centre and individual companies and between groups of companies. - The centre will provide a far better foundation for creating a relevant content in the education of future wind power engineers. - The centre will provide an opportunity for third party testing of the entire transmission system. The report does not contain a final outline of who should own the research and knowledge centre