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If they are doing the design based on the need for maintenance over efficient power generation I'm not sure I want that product. How often do most wind turbines need maintenance?
It's a balance between engineering economy and performance. You might be able to design and ship a product which never breaks and meets performance, but the production cost may be astronomical and any return on the product will be non-existent. Either way, when the cost exceeds the benefits of the product, it isn't viable.
In reality though all mechanical parts will wear down over time simply because that's how mechanical interaction works. Maintenance, preventative or reactive, will still be needed for any machine.
Breakdown from 2010 on turbines says there is an average of 6 incidents for every ten machine-years of use. That results in about 30-40% of the operating cost of the turbine (6 to 10 USD or so per megawatt-hour).
So if they break down a bit more then once every two years, preventative maintenance is what every 6 months? I understand it is nice to have the work be easy to do, but if downtime is 1% and uptime is 99% it seems logical to make the uptime a bit more efficient (2 blades) rather then shortening the downtime (time to stop with the brakes) by a small amount. Especially if the main advantage of the single blade design is in wear on the brakes as that accounted for 0.6 days worth of downtime per year according to your site, where as efficiency in the blades would add to the power output offsetting that cost.
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[–] thrus ago
If they are doing the design based on the need for maintenance over efficient power generation I'm not sure I want that product. How often do most wind turbines need maintenance?
[–] Grospoliner ago
Too bad.
It's a balance between engineering economy and performance. You might be able to design and ship a product which never breaks and meets performance, but the production cost may be astronomical and any return on the product will be non-existent. Either way, when the cost exceeds the benefits of the product, it isn't viable.
In reality though all mechanical parts will wear down over time simply because that's how mechanical interaction works. Maintenance, preventative or reactive, will still be needed for any machine.
Breakdown from 2010 on turbines says there is an average of 6 incidents for every ten machine-years of use. That results in about 30-40% of the operating cost of the turbine (6 to 10 USD or so per megawatt-hour).
[–] thrus ago
So if they break down a bit more then once every two years, preventative maintenance is what every 6 months? I understand it is nice to have the work be easy to do, but if downtime is 1% and uptime is 99% it seems logical to make the uptime a bit more efficient (2 blades) rather then shortening the downtime (time to stop with the brakes) by a small amount. Especially if the main advantage of the single blade design is in wear on the brakes as that accounted for 0.6 days worth of downtime per year according to your site, where as efficiency in the blades would add to the power output offsetting that cost.