Nordic Folkecenter’s testfield for small wind turbines has now two new prototypes, which have been installed on July 5 and July 11. The two wind turbines have a swept area of 80 m2 and 200 m2 respectively and they will be in the test field for a period of 6 months.
A new wind turbine from the Danish company ThyWindPower was installed in the Test field for Small Wind Turbines in Hundborg on July 5th. The turbine has a nominal power of 15 kW and it is equipped with new blades made by the company Olsen Wings A/S, located in Odder (DK). The blades are 5 m long, which result in a swept area of 80 m2. The wings are designed in a new way, so that they can operate also in low wind conditions. Currently, it seems that the wind turbine starts to produce electricity already with a wind speed of 3.5 m/s.
In addition to the newly-designed wings, the tower (20 m height) also presents some innovations, being 800 kg lighter than the previous solutions, result which is achieved by substituting massive elements with hollow ones.
The turbine proves that it is possible to have improvements of current designs, both in terms of efficiency and cost. The changes will now be tested in our Testfield for a period of 6 months, where it will be verified if the materials and the connections fulfill all the norms and regulations, according to international standards.
Nordic Folkecenter is currently collecting wind data with a timeframe of one second, data which will be used to develop a power curve documenting the performances of the turbine.
In addition to that, a second turbine was installed on July 11, with the purpose of testing a new type of blades, developed by the company Joint Blade Rotor A/S, located in Nibe (DK).
The blades are 8 m long (200 m2 swept area) and each of them consists of two small blades connected in the middle. The blades are made of fiberglass, have an active pitch and rotate at 56 RPM. The prototypes are installed on an existing tower and nacelle and they will go through a period of test of 6 months.
The Test Center for Small Wind Turbines, operated by Nordic Folkecenter, opened in April this year; the strong interest both from national and international companies and institutions confirms that the market is growing.
Inquiries can be addressed to Jane Kruse, director of Nordic Folkecenter:
(+45 40 60 45 51/+45 97 95 66 00, jk@folkecenter.dk