revtothelimit - motorbike forum

Theres a whole farm of the egg ones just south of Northampton on the M1. I always assumed they were axial flux generators but I'm curious to find out more about them now.

AIUI, and bear in mind I'm not particularly trained about these things, it's basically just a very wide generator producing wild AC. That's then converted to DC, sent down the tower and converted back into consistent AC suitable for pouring into the grid. The diameter of the generator means that the speed of the outer moving part is fast enough relative the the fixed inner not to need gearing. It makes for a simple system, but quite a physically large one, the nacelle on the one here, an E44 with a rated output of 900KW/h, is about 4 metres in diameter. All the servicing, excepting the nav lights and the anemometer can be done in the nacelle, no more being out in the weather doing routine servicing.

Yeah I think its something like that too.

Generally with electrical machines faster = more efficient, but obviously that throws in gears. However if you have something physically bigger you can achieve alot of the same effects for the same rotational speed.

From my limited reading on those Eggs they don't have permanent magnets, so the rotor is presumably magnetised via electricity (I.e. the rotor has electricity passing through it, like in a car alternator) which means you can control the voltage output via changing the current flowing in the rotor. TBH I dunno if that's the norm for turbines or whether they typically use permanent magnets. It also means the turbine has to consume a bit of power to actually work.

Yes, I think.

If I needed to know how it worked I'd find out. I'm allowed to press the big red reset button, change fuses and tie things down if the are damaged or rattling. I had to repair the satellite comms system because it had rusted enough to break. That was a piece or fence post and some ratchet straps. It worked until replaced.

The Emergya Wind Turbines (EWT) are all gearbox-less as well.
I know that because a former business partner kept on going on about it when he co-founded the firm...although he didn't mention that Enercon had been gearbox-less for a decade already!

You can see a few EWT turbines along the M6/74 route.
It's easy to tell which ones they are - they are the REALLY ugly ones!

That's similar to the Enercon before they were restyled. I was told that was by Richard Rogers but I can't find any proof of that with a quick search.

Nuclear power sounds far simpler than having to remove ice and snow.

Lovely, safe, simple nuclear power with its easily dealt with residues.

Asian Boss wrote: Wed Feb 17, 2021 10:48 am Nuclear power sounds far simpler than having to remove ice and snow.

Lovely, safe, simple nuclear power with its easily dealt with residues.

And the folk who live nearby with 2 heads and 17 fingers can get jobs in the freak show with the circus. Wins all round

https://www.theregister.com/2021/02/17/texas_blackouts/

An interesting read, I hadn't realised how bad the infrastructure was in the states, they've not got a complete joined up grid like the commies in Europe.

Yorick wrote: Wed Feb 17, 2021 10:51 am

Asian Boss wrote: Wed Feb 17, 2021 10:48 am Nuclear power sounds far simpler than having to remove ice and snow.

Lovely, safe, simple nuclear power with its easily dealt with residues.

And the folk who live nearby with 2 heads and 17 fingers can get jobs in the freak show with the circus. Wins all round

How the electric produced where you are? Are you connected to anywhere else, or is it completely islanded?

Ours is connected to the mainland grid, at least it is when the cable hasn't been broken. There's some wind turbines too but they have to shut down if there's no mainland connection, mostly to do with demand balancing AFAIK. They also need grid power to synchronise to.

cheb wrote: Wed Feb 17, 2021 11:08 am

Yorick wrote: Wed Feb 17, 2021 10:51 am

Asian Boss wrote: Wed Feb 17, 2021 10:48 am Nuclear power sounds far simpler than having to remove ice and snow.

Lovely, safe, simple nuclear power with its easily dealt with residues.

And the folk who live nearby with 2 heads and 17 fingers can get jobs in the freak show with the circus. Wins all round

How the electric produced where you are? Are you connected to anywhere else, or is it completely islanded?

Ours is connected to the mainland grid, at least it is when the cable hasn't been broken. There's some wind turbines too but they have to shut down if there's no mainland connection, mostly to do with demand balancing AFAIK. They also need grid power to synchronise to.

AFAIK, we're self sufficient. There's a big leccy plant in Arrecife, and 2 groups of huge wind turbines, about 15 in total.

But no commercial solar effort. Whereas on the peninsula we saw huge fields with literally thousands of solar panels, which all turned as the sun moved.

Permanent magnets are pretty expensive come to think of it, so it would make sense to do as you say. It would also allow you to ouput a constant voltage across loads of different wind speeds.

I have the offer of a company car, I've always avoided one because of the hideous BIK tax, but a hybrid isn't that bad... and they do a disco sport hybrid.

cheb wrote: Wed Feb 17, 2021 10:57 amAn interesting read, I hadn't realised how bad the infrastructure was in the states, they've not got a complete joined up grid like the commies in Europe.

The really commie commies in Europe don't do so well!

Kneerly Down wrote: Wed Feb 17, 2021 3:48 pm

cheb wrote: Wed Feb 17, 2021 10:57 amAn interesting read, I hadn't realised how bad the infrastructure was in the states, they've not got a complete joined up grid like the commies in Europe.

The really commie commies in Europe don't do so well!

Romania 154 days !!!

I think there's a decimal place in there, but two weeks is still a bit salty!

371 minutes is just over 6 hours for Romania which isn't too much over a year, have I misread something?

Mussels wrote: Wed Feb 17, 2021 4:35 pm 371 minutes is just over 6 hours for Romania which isn't too much over a year, have I misread something?

No but I have, I read it as hours.

Mussels wrote: Wed Feb 17, 2021 4:35 pm 371 minutes is just over 6 hours for Romania which isn't too much over a year, have I misread something?

It'll be skewed to certain regions though.
I reckon our average annual outages over the past decade have averaged to around 12-18 hours....that excludes the 5 straight weeks we were on generators a good few years back.

Mussels wrote: Wed Feb 17, 2021 4:35 pm 371 minutes is just over 6 hours for Romania which isn't too much over a year, have I misread something?

On my phone I saw 3710