Dübendorf ZH/Grevenbroich – Agile Wind Power has received approval to dismantle the rotor on its prototype assembled in Grevenbroich, Germany. Now, various tests are expected to shed light on the cause of the discovered cracks in the rotor arm of the vertical-axis wind turbine.
Agile Wind Power has received approval to dismantle the rotor of its second prototype. The megawatt-class vertical-axis wind turbine is a world premiere. It was developed for local, decentralized power generation for commerce and industry.
According to the company, the preparatory work for the dismantling is proceeding according to plan. In addition, tests were carried out these days in the wind tunnel on a 1:33 scale model of the wind turbine. It was built to determine the cause of damage. The results are still pending. This month and next, load tests on the rotor arms are also reportedly planned to provide certainty about their load capacity.
In this vertical-axis wind turbine, the position of each individual rotor blade is automatically adjusted to the wind direction. This results in high performance even at low rotation speed. At the same time, the load on the plant structure remains comparatively low and reduces noise.
The further developed prototype was assembled on a wind test field in Grevenbroich, Germany, in June last year. This has brought this enhanced prototype striking steps closer to production readiness. In November 2022, initial preliminary test measurements had demonstrated high efficiency. mm
