Adwen and Winergy say they have developed a gearbox for Adwen’s AD 8-180 offshore wind turbine with an input torque of close to 10,000 kilonewton-meters and a weight of 86 tons.
According to Adwen, this is the largest wind turbine gearbox in the world.
The companies say it is part of a medium-speed drivetrain concept that will considerably help reduce the levelized cost of energy on Adwen’s new offshore giant.
In combination with a nominal electrical power of 8 MW, the gearbox attains a 70% increase in torque capacity with only a 20% weight increase compared with other gearboxes used in offshore wind turbines larger than 6 MW.
Adwen asserts that the gearbox attains an efficiency of well over 98% in tests, and further, its reliability increases by reducing the built-in components.
Winergy has manufactured four gearboxes for Adwen, with the goal of having them fully validated in three phases. The final phase is field tests with the installation of the AD 8-180 prototype in Bremerhaven, Germany.
“We continue pushing the limits of the industry with our AD 8-180, this time with the largest gearbox ever built,” said Luis Alvarez, CEO of Adwen.
“This key component has performed extremely well during the exhaustive validation process, which makes us confident the first prototype of the turbine will meet and even exceed our expectations in terms of performance and reliability when it is installed. In addition, as is the case of all main components, it has been designed with scalability in mind, enabling future evolution of the platform,” he explained.
Winergy CEO Aarnout Kant added, “Particularly in the offshore sector, reliability is the essential thing. With this medium-speed gearbox concept, we are demonstrating our technological expertise and innovative strength. The integrated drive system is not only very compact and efficient – it is also extremely reliable.”
