Get wind of this
by David Accomazzo

The area’s top research facilities have joined efforts to create the Center for Research and Education in Wind (CREW), which will contribute resources and research to develop and enhance wind energy technology.

The University of Colorado at Boulder has teamed up with Colorado State University, Colorado School of Mines, the National Center for Atmospheric Research, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL), as well as members of the wind energy industry to develop ways to improve existing wind turbine technology and “make wind power more accessible by reducing its cost and increasing its reliability and efficiency,” according to the organization’s website.

About 70 researchers, when all is said and done, will work on CREW projects, says CREW Scientific Director Lucy Pao, a CU professor in the electrical, computer and energy engineering department. The research is funded by government sources and private industries, and any CREW technology developed with industry funds is shared between the university and the private sector.

Some of CREW’s research focuses on developing Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) technology for use in wind turbines, Pao says.

Developing LIDAR for use on wind turbines will drastically increase the amount of data available to turbine operators, who in turn could use the data to make wind turbines run more efficiently.

“Right now, the control of wind turbines commercially does not use wind speed information,” Pao says. “Basically, wind speed information is only used in higher-level supervisory control.”

Wind turbines operate best at a specific wind speed — if wind speeds are too high, then turbine operators must shut down the turbine or else risk damage to delicate machinery.

Mounting a LIDAR unit on turbines will allow more data to be recorded and allow the individual arms on a turbine to adjust their angle to the wind in “real-time” depending on wind speed.

“If you have the real-time measurements of wind speed, you can improve the control quite significantly,” Pao says. “For instance: There’s a gust that’s coming through. If you don’t know it’s coming, then that will hit all the turbines, which will cause some structural vibration damage that is not good for the turbines.”

“If you know that gust is coming, then you can change the blade pitch so more of the wind goes by the turbine instead of hitting it,” Pao says. “You want to maximize the power capture and try to reduce loading on the structure.”

Researchers at CREW are also looking to improve technology on offshore wind turbines. Most offshore turbines in use today are built for shallow water, according to Pao. But the continental shore around the United States forces any sort of turbine into deep water, requiring technology that has yet to be developed. Another research goal of CREW is to develop technology for deep-water turbines, according to Pao.

The center’s other goal is education. Pao says that CREW is looking to develop undergraduate-level courses in the engineering school for those interested in wind technology. There’s only one CU graduate-level wind energy course — and it always has a wait list. She believes there is enough interest among students to develop a wider variety of course offerings.