ReGen Powertech, a leading wind turbine manufacturer of India, is introducing the country’s largest wind turbine, WD 2.8, with a rated power output of 2.8 MW and rotor diameter of 109 metres. This is the largest capacity turbine with the biggest rotor diameter to be developed in India.
Entirely designed and developed by ReGen’s own R&D subsidiary in Germany, Wind Direct GmbH, this turbine has many unique design and constructional features. Primarily developed for the medium and high wind regions, this turbine is mainly intended for export to the emerging markets outside of the Indian subcontinent. It is expected that the introduction of this new turbine, a prototype of which is under testing at ReGen’s own test site in Coimbatore district of Tamil Nadu, will mark ReGen’s foray into the global arena.
The permanent magnet synchronous generator of this turbine has unique design and construction features and offers distinct advantage over the generators used in geared turbines as well as gearless turbines. The generator of WD 2.8 offers IP 54 protection compared to IP 23 protection normally available for generators of other gearless wind turbines. The generator is of segmental design and has two fully independent power systems, each of 1.4 MW capacities. This allows operation of the turbine at half the rated power in case of any maintenance to some of the segments of the generator.
Similarly, the unique design of the windings helps the generator to operate at a higher efficiency and also reduce the generator size and weight. The weight of the tower head mass is only 156 tonnes compared to almost 250 tonnes of other gearless wind turbines of comparable capacity and almost of the same weight as geared wind turbines of similar capacity. The generator has an active air to air cooling system which makes it suitable for operation in high temperature sites.
The WD 2.8 also offers advantages similar to other ReGen gearless wind turbines, like low reactive power, high partial load efficiencies and low voltage ride through (LVRT), making it a highly grid friendly turbine.
ReGen Powertech has been in the Indian market for the last six years and has about 1,500 MW of installation in India and Sri Lanka behind it. It presently manufactures 1.5 MW synchronous permanent magnet gearless wind turbines with a technology agreement with Vensys, Germany. In this short span of six years, ReGen Powertech has introduced wind turbines with three different rotor diameters of 77, 82 & 87 metre suitable for low and medium wind regions found in countries like India.
