Two of Ides customers appertain to the most interesting companies concerning energy issues at the moment. Vertical Wind AB and Seabased AB in Uppsala, Sweden, are developers of new technologies for power generation from winds and waves. Internationally, the interest for both companies is major, and the investors are lined up.
Ides’ contribution to the environment
As Ides elMaster license holders, Seabased and Vertical Wind have an excellent tool for the electric design work when constructing the wave energy plants and the wind energy converters (WEC). Thanks to elMaster, we can say that we contribute to a better environment, says Lars Geidne, CEO at Ides.
ENERGY FROM THE SEA
In the world, research on wave energy has been going on for about 30 years. Finally, through the technology of Seabased, a breakthrough has been achieved to cope with the massive forces of the sea and at the same time be able to extract energy from the waves.
At Seabased they have used elMaster for the electric design work of the wave energy plants.
“Thanks to elMaster, Seabased has gained good structure and documentation basis of the electric system in terms of drawings, apparatus lists, cable lists and more”, says Erik Lejerskog, Electrical systems manager at Seabased.
Seabased is the leading wave energy company in Sweden. Together with wave energy researchers at the Department of electricity at Uppsala University, the company has developed generators that will stand on the seabed and generate power for 20 homes. The developer of the technology behind the wave energy converter is Mats Leijon, professor, inventor and founder of Seabased. According to calculations, the waves are an energy resource which in the future can provide as much as 2.000 TWh annually in Europe. This represents the whole of Western Europe’s electricity needs. The Swedish waves account for modest 10 TWh, which is however equivalent to the annual production of a normal nuclear reactor.
The major power producing companies in the north are very interested in the possibilities with wave energy. They seem to agree that the potential of wave energy is significant. Thanks to the fact that the wave energy is renewable and emission free, it plays an important role in the battle against increased emissions.
This is how it works:
The idea is quite simple and is based on the difference in altitude between a wave crest and trough. The generator is placed in a concrete base on the seabed at a depth of 25-300 meters. There each generator is connected with a wire to a large buoy. The buoys will follow the movements of the waves, and at the same time a piston with powerful magnets in the generator will be pulled up and down and power will be generated. When the buoy follows the movements of the waves, about 20 percent of the incoming energy can be converted into electric power, according to Mats Leijon’s calculations.
Since the voltage and frequency varies continuously in line with the waves, and also among the individual generators, the electricity needs to be converted at the substation before it is connected to the power distribution grid.
POWERFUL WINDS
Vertical Wind AB has developed a new wind power technique based on a vertical axis turbine with a cable wound direct driven generator, placed on the ground level. The design is robust and simple, easy to maintain, and has fewer movable and sensitive sub systems. It is also quieter compared to traditional horizontal axis wind power stations. Thanks to the vertical rotation of the axis, the turbine will receive the wind energy no matter the wind direction. Customers want for more reliable wind power converters that are larger in size and have greater energy output than those of today. If Vertical Wind is to meet this demand there will be times of great challenges ahead with chances of large benefits, not to forget the environmental benefits. The development of this type of wind energy converter has come a long way scientifically. The goal is to produce turnkey parks of wind energy converters. In April 2008 Vertical Wind expanded from ideas and patents to an operational company with a staff consisting of a dozen engineers.
Just like the sister company (Seabased), Vertical Wind also uses the advantages of Ides software in the design work: “We use elMaster for the documentation of our electrical system which is essential for a modern wind energy converter”, says Jenny Tedelid, Power electronics engineer at Vertical Wind.
Vertical Wind AB was founded in 2002 by professor Mats Leijon and his colleague Hans Bernhoff. It was in 1931 the French engineer Georges Jean Marie Darrieus who came up with the idea of wind energy converters with horizontal spinning blades and vertical shafts. Mats Leijon and his colleague Hans Bernhoff later developed the idea of VAWT even further.
(idesNews December 2008)