New and Improved Wind Power

Reported November 2009

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Wind power is the fastest growing renewable energy source in the United States. Last year, 42 percent of all new electricity was generated by it. But to get the most power from wind, wind farms need to be efficient and reliable. A new smart sensor is helping improve this clean and renewable energy technology.

The United States can generate enough electricity from wind to power about 7 million homes, and this is just the beginning.

"In the United States, we have a target for 20 percent of our energy that is used as electricity, is going to be derived by wind power by about 2030," Doug Adams, Ph.D., a mechanical engineer at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, told Ivanhoe.

To meet that goal, Adams has developed a smart sensor that monitors wind turbines in order to increase their efficiency and reliability.

The sensor fits inside one of the turbine blades and measures how much the blade twists and bends in the wind. This information is sent to an operator who can adjust the blade, to avoid high winds that could cause damage or change the blade's direction, to harvest more wind and produce more power.

"We need to make every single turbine we put up and install is as reliable and as efficient as it can be, and this sensor technology will help to do that," Dr. Adams explained.

Making wind turbines better may help bring America' s wind energy goal closer to reality, and help make green energy more affordable for everyone.

"So if we can lower the cost of maintaining turbines that are unreliable, the consumer will pay less for wind energy," Dr. Adams said.

It’s a win-wind situation for everyone.

Researchers hope to have sensors on many wind blades across the country in the next two to five years. Last year, more than 8,500 megawatts of new wind capacity was installed in the U.S., which has also lead to the creation of 8,400 new jobs.

The American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.-USA, and the American Geophysical Union contributed to the information contained in the TV portion of this report.

Click here to Go Inside This Science or contact:

Douglas Adams, PhD
Purdue University
Lafayette, IN 47905
(765) 449 -4249
deadams@purdue.edu

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.
IEEE
Pender McCarter
IEEE http://www.ieee.org
IEEE-USA http://www.ieeeusa.org
p.mccarter@ieee.org

American Society of Mechanical Engineers
(800) 843-2763 or (973) 882-1170
http://www.asme.org
infocentral@asme.org

Peter Weiss
American Geophysical Union
Washington, DC 20009-1277
(800) 966-2481
http://www.agu.org
pweiss@agu.org

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