Vestas to install research wind turbine at Sandia facility in Texas

phys.org
18 Apr 2012

The initial phase of Sandia National Laboratories' Scaled Wind Farm Technology facility (SWIFT), currently being constructed in partnership with Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas, will be a little bigger than originally planned. Leading wind turbine manufacturer Vestas Wind Systems will add its own 300 kW, V27 research turbine to the two Sandia National Laboratories V27 research turbines. The Labs worked with Vestas Wind Systems to develop the new three-turbine site plan, uniquely tailored to study turbine-to-turbine interactions. Sandia National Laboratories and Vestas Wind Systems will conduct collaborative research with all three turbines, although each turbine can also be used separately with minimal interaction.

"The Lubbock site benefits from high wind resource and low turbulence, which is ideal for research", said Jon White, project manager and researcher in Sandia National Laboratories's Wind Energy Technologies group. "Wind at the site comes predominately from the south, making it easy to set up the turbine array for research on turbine-to-turbine interactions". The SWIFT concept reflects a shared emphasis amongst the partners on lowering the cost of wind power by maximising the output of a wind power plant rather than a single turbine.

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