Recently, the head of Google X, the product research department of the technology giant Google, said that the "power kite" they developed was expected to fly in April.
It is understood that Google acquired Makani, a wind power startup company, in 2013, and announced that it would set foot in wind power and manufacture "power kites". According to Astro Teller, the head of Google X Lab, the wind turbine named "Makani" they developed looks like a kite flying in the air, which is tied to the ground tower by high-strength ultra light carbon fiber ropes. Each kite is about 25.6 meters long, equipped with 8 propellers, and has a power generation capacity of 600 kW. When the kite flies into the air, it will drive the wind turbine to generate electricity in the form of a large circle in the air. The kite can rise to a height of about 426 meters.
It is reported that the kite wind motor mainly drives the wind turbine blades to generate power. The ground fixed platform uses a horizontal propeller similar to the helicopter propeller to fly the kite wind motor. When the kite flies to the altitude with stable wind speed, it begins to circle in large diameter. The air flows through the blades of the wind turbine to rotate it and generate electricity, which is then transmitted to the fixed platform on the ground and the connected power grid through ropes.
Generally speaking, the higher the surface height is, the greater the wind speed of air flow stability is, and the power generation effect will be better. But in reality, it is difficult to build fixed fans in high altitude areas. Astro Teller said that this is precisely why Google chose to use the "kite power generation" method, and Makani, who uses windward power generation, can also choose the most appropriate angle to capture wind energy according to the wind direction. In addition, the production cost of this "power kite" is also greatly reduced, and the required materials are only 10% of that of traditional fans. If judged according to the environmental conditions in the United States, each power generating kite generates 50% more energy than the traditional wind turbine.
We can imagine that when modern wind turbines have the participation of Internet giants, it also means that in the future, wind power will be able to fly to heaven and hide, play with big data, cross the Internet, and use all means to save energy as much as possible. At the same time, it will also be more intelligent. "Internet+wind power" will become the future development trend of wind power.
The trend of wind power intelligence is obvious
This year, whether it is the intensive release of policies at the national level to promote clean energy power generation such as wind power and photovoltaic, or the Notice of the National Energy Administration on Doing a Good Job in Wind Power Grid Connection and Consumption in 2015, all of them have released a positive signal that the wind power industry has entered a stable growth period. In addition to the factors of the reduction of wind power grid price, a new round of "rush to install" of wind power has started in China 。 While the rush to install market has brought about a large demand for wind power equipment, it has also put forward higher requirements for the performance and technical level of wind turbines. Especially after the government work report this year proposed "Internet+", wind power intelligence is also being talked about by the industry.
Referring to the practices of some European countries, every time their wind turbine manufacturers erect a fan, it is like building a small data center. The manufacturer collects the generation indicators and key points of wind turbines spare parts On the basis of these data, make comprehensive judgments and forecasts, analyze and improve the return on assets of investors, and timely feed back to the R&D and O&M fields, so as to provide reference for the improvement and upgrading of the next generation of products. In addition to the data generated by the wind turbine equipment itself, powerful wind turbine manufacturers will also make statistics on the larger database generated by the natural environment, that is, environmental data including wind and terrain, and draw a wind resource distribution map.
In terms of equipment, the control types of wind turbines are diverse. At present, pitch health diagnosis, vibration monitoring, blade health monitoring, intelligent lubrication, intelligent yaw, intelligent pitch, intelligent unthreading, and intelligent testing will be the direction of wind turbine intelligent development.
In addition, intelligent wind power is also conducive to the later maintenance of equipment. Due to the large size of wind turbines, aerial work is required in daily maintenance, especially when wind drives wind turbine blades, which will cause great trouble to workers. With the application of the latest technological achievements, such as UAVs, big data, mobile intelligent devices, on wind power equipment, it will make human control of wind power more convenient.
With the development of wind power intelligence, the profits of wind turbine manufacturers are expected to be further improved. When the intelligent integrated solution is adopted for the fan, the reliability and availability of the fan will be greatly improved, the power output will be increased, and the cost will be reduced. In other words, the application of the Internet and big data thinking to the manufacturing of wind power equipment and the operation and maintenance of wind farms will certainly become the trend of future development.
