The
Davis Wind Construction Group works with clients to create a suitable engineering
design and put together the best possible hardware layout for a site. The
Davis Wind Construction Group works with clients to create a suitable engineering
design and put together the best possible hardware layout for a site.
Ridges concentrate wind that flows over them. Topography also inclines the wind at different times in different ways relative to a wind turbine rotor. This causes stresses that most turbines are not designed to handle. Topography also directly and indirectly creates turbulence at different scales. Many ridge sites have had turbine failures and no one contemplating a ridge site should believe they are as simple or as reliable as performance observed from flatter areas like northern Europe. Turbulence and wind inclination distinguish Western US sites, so Davis Wind is working with smaller turbine manufacturers to produce turbines suitable for ridge and mountainous locations. Ridge and mountain sites are completely different from large wind farms of northern Europe or the Central US.
Davis
Wind is working with smaller, more rugged turbines suitable to these difficult
locations. Currently, manufacturers include Nordic
Windpower , The Wind Turbine
Company, and Future Wind. These
three companies are smaller, produce small turbines more suitable for ridge
access and locations and are interested in the California and Nevada markets.
Davis Wind is currently helping Nordic Windpower , LLC become established in the Western US, with a manufacturing base in the Western US. We are helping Nordic to adapt the Nordic Wind turbines for the US market. Negotiations are in progress to set up manufacturing in the US for turbines designed to be reliable in the Nevada and California markets.
The Nordic Windpower Turbine is a simple upwind two bladed 1 MW unit of Swedish design that is stall regulated and extremely reliable. This is a modern two bladed technology that is based directly on a Swedish design that has been performing very well in Sweden and Norway for many years. Davis Wind has visited extensively with the Swedish developers and is working in partnership with their American licensees.
While we are currently favoring the Nordic turbines for their robustness, we will use turbines of any manufacture that may suit particular sites or clients, so as to decouple the wind development activities from the promotion of any one turbine manufacturer or design. The engineers at Nordic are currently willing to provide engineering assistance and modification for the high shear, high wind inclination, and high turbulence conditions of ridgetop sites.
The Wind Turbine Company is a local group with whom Davis Wind presently is helping develop 750 kW-class technology suitable for Northern California and Nevada. This technology has been tested at NREL and is expected to be further tested refined and commercialized by a Sacramento group. Davis Wind intends to provide engineering and marketing services to this group and work with them to build turbines for the Western US market.
Smaller turbines can also be considered. For example, in the 300 kW class, Davis Wind is working with an English company, Future Wind. The Future Wind Company is developing an older, smaller technology and modifying it for the rugged Western US market. Their design is for smaller, tilt-up towers suitable for difficult access locations and community or a small industrial development.
