Medium-scale wind manufacturer counters FiT fall by boosting blade length and productivity of its innovative nED100 turbine
11th February 2014, London – Medium-scale wind turbine manufacturer Norvento has launched a new, extended 24-metre rotor for its nED100 turbine, capable of increasing the Annual Energy Production (AEP) of the 100kW machine by 8% on average.
With a 20% Feed-in Tariff degression planned for April 2015, the new rotor – available at no additional cost to new buyers – will help landowners considerably lessen the impact of this anticipated revenue loss and further bring down energy costs on site.
By lengthening each blade by one metre, Norvento has enlarged the overall rotor diameter to 24m, two metres longer than the existing 22m model, thereby increasing the swept area of the blades by more than 72m2. This swept area increase allows nED100 to harness significantly more energy and boost its efficiency in all wind speeds.
Despite this enlargement, the impact of nED100 with regards to planning remains very small. The subtle increase in blade length does not significantly alter the turbine’s overall visual impact. Furthermore, the new rotor diameter has been designed to spin at slightly lower revolutions than the 22m model in order to maintain an identical tip speed ratio, which, in practice, means that both models have the same operational noise levels. The new rotor size also operates nED’s unique low noise mode designed for noise sensitive locations.
In launching the new rotor design, Norvento has further enhanced a product that has already set the benchmark for performance, reliability and efficiency in the UK distributed wind market. In October 2014, nED100 set a 2177 kWh production record in 24 hours, while in December it became the first turbine of its size in the world to achieve the stringent IEC 61400-1 design certification.
However, rather than increasing the price of the turbine accordingly to account for the productivity increase the 24m rotor provides, Norvento has in fact reduced the price of the existing 22m model in order to allow buyers to most effectively counter the effects of the upcoming tariff degression.
“The new 24 metre rotor size will help us to maximise the financial and practical benefits we provide to landowners,” said Ivo Arnús, Director of UK Business Development, Norvento.
“Crucially, it does this whilst maintaining the certified design features that make nED100 one of the safest, most efficient and reliable medium-scale turbines on the market – and at no extra cost to the buyer.”
“As the UK distributed wind sector prepares to enter a post-tariff phase, the only realistic way for landowners to guarantee long-term returns is to invest in a turbine that is still performing close to capacity in 20 years’ time.”
Norvento will be exhibiting nED100 at Energy Now in Telford on 11-12 February, stand #89.
About Norvento
Headquartered in Spain and with an expanding international footprint, Norvento is a pioneering renewable energy developer, operator and manufacturer.
In 2012, the company generated a total output of 366,711MWh. This builds on a 30-year reputation for design, construction, operation and engineering excellence.
Capitalising on an already well-established research and development programme, in 2008, the firm began a five year development programme with the ambition to manufacture and build an entirely new product line for the distributed wind market.
Following an extensive testing programme, the 100kW unit, now known as nED100, was launched into the UK market in October 2013. It is targeted at key international markets and introduces a fresh phase of successful large-scale wind innovations into medium-scale distributed wind.
The turbine, that will be initially sold and deployed in the UK, tackles key market inefficiencies and brings big wind benefits to the medium-scale distributed wind space. For more information, please visit – www.norvento.com
