Month: November 2017

  • Gearbox in wind turbines

    Why do you need a gearbox in a wind turbine? The short answer is that you don’t need one – if you are using a direct drive WTG. But even if the solution without gearbox is used by several manufacturers (e.g. the Goldwind 2.5 PMDD, Enercon models, etc.) the majority of makers decided to include…

  • Wind farm earthing and optical fiber cables

    In this post of many, many years ago I explained how wind farm trenches are usually built. In addition to the medium voltage cables, in the trenches usually there are also 2 other type of cables: Earthing cables Optical fiber cables The earthing cables are usually made of copper and they are used to dissipate…

  • Wind derivatives: is hedging the risk the next step for wind energy?

    Weather derivatives are not a new product. The first contract were traded over the counter in the ‘90s, with the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) introducing from 1999 a broad set of products like futures and options that are widely traded today. They are a financial product that can help hedging the risk associated with the…