Category: Industry News

Wind turbines are expensive investments and for them give you a high return on investment, they need to be well-maintained. It is also important to choose a suitable maintenance strategy with a low maintenance cost. Before you start servicing your wind turbines, here are some things to consider:

What is done during turbine maintenance? 

Although turbine maintenance differs from turbine to turbine, here is a list of the typical steps:

1. Change oil, belts, bearing lubrication and air filters
2. Test and realign shaft and hydraulic components
3. Inspect leakages and cracks
4. Torque tower bolts

Failure-based wind turbine maintenance 

Failure-based maintenance involves using the wind turbine until it fails. There are no scheduled repairs or services before the failure.

Condition-based maintenance 

Condition-based maintenance relies on predicting when a malfunction will occur. When a problem is noticed, then a repair is scheduled before the wind turbine actually malfunctions. In the U.S., the cost of operations and maintenance on wind farms in 2016 ranged between $42,000 and $48,000 per MW. It is important for wind farms to be kept in working condition to streamline these high costs. 

Scheduled maintenance 

Scheduled or time-based wind turbine maintenance keeps your wind turbines performing optimally. 

How is this done?

Technicians keep the moving components of the wind turbine lubricated, including gearboxes and bearings. Your technician should do this 2–3 times a year.

With scheduled maintenance, your wind turbines are less likely to fail because there is always a scheduled service or repair.

At Anemoi, we ensure that our maintenance checklist provides all the essential information for safe maintenance, cleaning, inspections, testing and replacement tasks that are necessary to ensure the proper operation of generators and associated equipment. We only let highly-qualified technicians and engineers perform on your wind turbines, whether they are residential wind turbines or on wind farms. For more information on wind turbines maintenance and wind turbine services, contact Anemoi today.

Wondering how much money you can make with wind turbines? 

It’s a common question considering how much wind turbines cost and how big they are. If you are considering investing in a wind turbine, here are some things to consider:

How much do wind turbines cost? 

Home or farm-scale turbines are generally under 100 kilowatts and cost about $3000–$8000 per kilowatt of capacity. A large house would need a 10-kilowatt turbine and the installation cost would be about $50,000-$80,000. Smaller farm or residential turbines cost less but are more expensive with regards to per kilowatt of energy-producing capacity.

On the other hand, commercial wind turbines cost millions of dollars. Here is a breakdown:

1. A commercial average-sized wind turbine (2 megawatts) costs about $2.6–4 million.
2. The cost of the turbine goes up along with the size of the turbine. There are also certain benefits that come from using larger wind turbines.
3. The cost also depends on how many turbines you order, when the agreement takes place, contracts and location of the project.

How much money does a wind turbine produce?

Turbines are quite an expensive investment and so it’s important that they generate money for the buyer. Wind turbine owners can sell electricity to local power utilities for homes and businesses. So how much can wind turbines make?

Wind turbines can make between $3000–$10,000 or more per year depending on the size and kilowatt capacity of the turbine. Farmers on wind farms can maintain their own electricity production and guarantee a lower price for at least 20 years. 

In 2019,  A 1-megawatt turbine produced $61,320 at 35% capacity, $87,600 at 50% capacity and $114,880 at 65% capacity. A 2.5-megawatt turbine produced $153,300 at 35% capacity, $219,000 at 50% capacity and $284,700 at 65% capacity. Lastly, a 4-megawatt turbine produced $245,280 at 35% capacity, $350,400 at 50% capacity and $455,520 at 65% capacity. 

Wind turbines can only perform at 35–65% capacity due to wind conditions. 

Wind turbine maintenance cost 

Once you purchase and build a wind turbine, there are ongoing maintenance costs to consider:

• 1–2 cents per kilowatt-hour produced
• $42,000–$48,000 per year

Although these costs seem high, wind turbines are worth the investment, especially because they can recoup costs on their own.

If you are looking to purchase or service your wind turbine, you should contact a reputable energy services company. At Anemoi Energy Services, we offer comprehensive wind turbine maintenance and wind turbine services to make sure your units are running efficiently and at capacity each day. Contact Anemoi today for any wind turbine service.

You can find wind turbines on hillsides, close to factories, above homes and even in the ocean. Wind turbines are an attractive energy resource because they depend on nature to produce energy and their maintenance cost is quite low, but before buying one, you need to understand how to calculate wind turbine output.

What is a megawatt or a megawatt-hour? 

Manufacturers measure the rated capacity of the machine and the actual output you can expect from it to determine how much electric power is being produced in megawatts (MW). One MW is equal to a million watts. If you are calculating power over a period of time then it is measured in megawatt-hours (MWh) or kilowatt-hours (kWh). One kW is equivalent to a thousand watts. If your wind turbine produces power at 1 MW in an hour then this equals 1 MWh of energy produced.

Efficiency rating 

Wind turbines need to capture wind efficiently. Ideally, wind turbines should convert 100% of wind passing through into energy, but due to friction, this is unlikely in the real world. You can calculate the value like this: power = [(air d wind turbines only have an efficiency rating of 30–50%ensity) times (swept area of blades) times (wind speed cubed)] divided by 2. 

1. The area in square meters
2. Air density in kilograms per meters cubed
3. Wind speed in meters per second

What determines how much power a wind turbine can produce? 

The wind – turbines depend on their ability to capture energy from the wind. Following this, the turbine converts this energy to rotational torque that turns the generator. Larger turbines, amongst other benefits, can capture more wind energy. 

How much energy do wind turbines produce? 

Every wind turbine has a different wind speed, but they range from around 30–55 mph. When there are slow wind speeds, the energy production decreases – if the wind speed decreases bt 50%, then the power production decreases by a factor of eight. As a result, wind turbines do not operate near their capacity, but rather at about 15–30%.

For example, with a 25% capacity factor, a 2-MW turbine would produce 2 MW × 365 days × 24 hours × 25% = 4,380 MWh = 4,380,000 kWh per year.

If you are looking to service your wind turbine, you should contact a reputable wind turbine service like Anemoi Energy Services. At Anemoi, we offer comprehensive wind turbine maintenance and wind turbine services to help you keep your wind turbines performing optimally and at capacity every day. Contact us today for the best wind turbine solutions.

Wind turbine maintenance covers a range of factors, from manpower to ensuring that mechanical parts are lubricated to avoid any unexpected shutdowns. O&M budgets are often undervalued during the developmental phases of a project but it is a crucial part of the sustained reliability of wind turbines. If you’re working on your next renewable energy project and sharpening your pencil while calculating your O&M costs, here’s a look at the wind turbine maintenance services our qualified technicians offer.

Scheduled Maintenance 

Our wind technicians lubricate moving parts on components, such as gearboxes and bearings, and check connections on numerous devices within the system, also resolving any concerns that may develop. This is often performed two to three times per year. ANEMOI ensures that the maintenance checklist provides a client with all the essential information for safe maintenance, cleaning, inspections, testing and replacement tasks that are necessary to ensure the proper operation of generators and associated equipment. We only allow qualified technicians or engineers, who understand the principles of operation of the generator and its control panels to carry out any maintenance.

Manpower Augmentation 

We recognize that wind energy project schedules can be complex, with ongoing regular maintenance cycles, everyday troubleshooting, fleet-wide retrofits etc. – which is why we provide long-term skilled and qualified staff to meet the needs of any project.  We provide immediate skilled and qualified technicians without frustrating and time-consuming delays that can come with hiring and training personnel. We have the ability to staff long-term and short-term technicians across the country for the following:

• laydown yard support
• shipping and receiving support
• construction support
• scheduled or unscheduled maintenance
• inspections
• retrofits

Gearbox oil changes

We inspect, observe, understand and report any anomalies we find during your oil change. This service entails:

• Completely enclosed and self-contained unit to work in most environments without external power source needs.
• Temperature controlled tanks to optimize oil flow in any climate
• Four segregated oil tanks for waste oil, flush oil (heated), rinse oil (heated), and new product oil (heated and filtered)
• New product oil is filtered to iso 4406 standard
• A staff certified to perform warranty repairs on gearbox OEM equipment 

Retrofits 

We pride ourselves on increasing reliability at a lower cost per unit serviced. Many owners and operators are making the decision to retrofit their turbines with new parts, simply to reduce future running costs due to better reliability of the replaced parts and increased productivity. Since parts have a lifespan (and with many turbines reaching their 20-year design lifespan), owners/operators are finding they can retrofit and replace some exhausted end-of-life components to keep their assets online for additional years. 

For any of your wind turbine maintenance needs, get in touch with the qualified team at ANEMOI for assistance.

Maintenance costs for wind turbine projects can take up a sizeable chunk of the annual budget, with O&M costs for new turbines easily constituting more than 20% of the cost per kWh produced over a turbine’s lifespan.  It is believed that the maintenance costs for modern machines are in the region of 1.5% – 2% per year of the original investment. To keep maintenance costs low in the long-term, scheduled maintenance throughout a turbine’s life cycle is crucial. IHS Markit said in a report that the O&M costs of a U.S. utility-scale wind energy farm were approximately $48 000/MW in 2016 and that the average age of installed turbines was six years old. 

The importance of scheduled maintenance of wind turbines 

This is a method to ensure that your wind turbines are kept in consistent working order. Wind technicians should do the following two to three times per year:

• Lubricate the moving parts on components, such as gearboxes and bearings
• Check connections on numerous devices within the system
• Resolve any concerns that may develop

Dictate maintenance costs through long-term or short-term technicians on-site

You can crunch the numbers to see what would make the most sense for your project’s O&M costs by weighing whether it might be better to have permanent technicians on-site or whether you would only want them on-site on a short-term basis. Our technicians are available to perform the following services on your project across the country:

• Laydown yard support
• Shipping and receiving support
• Construction support
• Scheduled and unscheduled maintenance
• Inspections
• Retrofits

If you would like more information on our maintenance services or manpower augmentation for your wind turbine project needs, ANEMOI is here to assist you – get in touch today.

Performance decline is a reality of wind power fleets when wind turbines age, requiring more operations and maintenance (O&M) costs to manage acceptable output. HIS Markit recently released a report that indicated that U.S. wind O&M spending is expected to increase to above $7.5 billion by 2030 – which is a 50% increase from spending in 2018. 

Wind energy maintenance 

As with all machinery, turbines are also subjected to ageing and the need to be maintained to preserve optimal and efficient output. If capacity factors were to decrease to such an extent with age, it would mean that wind farms will subsequently produce a lower lifetime output and that the cost of electricity at those plants will increase. A dataset collected from wind turbines between 1998 and 2005 has shown that O&M costs climbed from $30/kW/yr when the machines were still new, exceeding $65/kW/yr when the turbines had been operational for 11 years. Importantly, with the advent of improvements in turbine technology, the starting costs between 2006 to 2011 were much less at approximately $24/kW/yr, indicating significant improvement in reliability and lower O&M costs.

Older turbines are likely to fail more frequently or take longer be brought back online, with reasons being that they might encounter more serious failures, components might be more difficult to source, and operators not being as likely to hold comprehensive maintenance contracts for the machines. Ultimately, the efficiency of a wind power fleet comes down to how much effort an owner is willing to invest in each machine to keep the O&M costs lower in the long run.

For scheduled maintenance or services of your commercial wind power projects, get in touch with our qualified team at ANEMOI are here to assist you. Our services include gearbox oil changes, scheduled maintenance, manpower augmentation, and retrofits. 

Wind generated power was responsible for more than 7% of the United States’ national electricity in 2019, with this form of renewable energy continuing to gain popularity. While there doesn’t seem to be an industry standard on operation and maintenance (O&M) costs, it does, however, seem as if these costs will continue to decrease in the years to come.

Operation and maintenance costs  

In 2009, the WindFacts publication found that O&M costs could account for up to 20-25% of the total levelized cost for each kWh produced by a new turbine during its lifetime. More than a decade later, however, these O&M costs are widely considered to be on a downward trajectory for onshore and offshore projects as larger machines are being used and wind turbines are becoming more reliable with the advancement of turbine technology. This, in turn, has triggered manufacturers to offer scheduled and unscheduled maintenance at lower costs than a few years ago. 

These costs are, understandably, difficult to standardise as there are various factors to take into account which will differ from project to project, such as:

• Turbine service contract
• Unscheduled maintenance 
• Insurance
• Land rent
• Local taxes
• Transmission charges
• Electricity usage

From latest reports, it would seem that the bulk of O&M expenses are influenced by unscheduled breakdowns and the servicing of wind turbines – which can all be controlled by the wind farm owner to a certain extent. One thing’s for certain – the development of turbine technology continues to have a positive effect on O&M costs.  

If you would like to see whether you could save any O&M costs on your wind generated power projects, get in touch with our qualified team at ANEMOI. Our services include gearbox oil changes, scheduled maintenance, manpower augmentation, and retrofits.

Falls, fire hazards, confined spaces, medical and first aid, machine guarding, lock/out electrical hazards, arc flash, and respiratory protection are just some of the many dangers that wind turbine workers face. To ensure maximum safety of wind turbine workers and to meet OSHA legislation, employers need to endeavor to exercise several essential wind turbine safety precautions and controls. Here are some safety tips for wind turbine workers.

First Aid personnel should always be on-site

At least one person qualified to administer first aid should be on-site whenever work on wind turbines is carried out. On construction sites, at least two people qualified and trained to administer first aid must be on-site when the installation, maintenance, or servicing of wind turbines is being conducted. It is also imperative that all workers performing any maintenance work must be trained in first aid.

Ongoing risk management and assessments 

Effective risk management is vital to ensuring wind turbine safety. Site managers and contractors should ensure that all wind turbine workers are correctly informed, educated, and knowledgeable about the risks and hazards that can occur during their duties, especially concerning electrical hazards and the risks of working with certain tools and materials.

Contractors and site managers should also endeavor to conduct ongoing task-specific risk assessments to uncover any hazards specific to their windfarm and implement appropriate control measures. Supervision is vital in monitoring operations and identifying areas for improvement and compliance.

Provision of personal protective equipment 

The provision of comprehensive personal protective equipment (PPE) is another crucial element of maintaining wind turbine health and safety. Any wind turbine worker exposed to a potential fall should be supported by a certified personal fall arrest system (PFAS), such as a full-body safety harness. PPE in the form of climbing helmets, safety glasses, head torches, arrest lanyards, positioning lanyards, overalls, safety vests, and safety footwear should also be provided to wind turbine workers.

Tool and equipment testing 

A qualified expert should be contracted to test all personal protective, safety, and rescue equipment, including fall arrest protection systems, ladders, elevators, electric hoists, pulleys, and cranes. A certified expert should also inspect all of the electrical tools used in the maintenance or servicing of wind turbines.

Active weather monitoring 

Severe weather conditions pose one of the most alarming threats to wind energy workers’ safety, especially as wind turbines are vulnerable to lightning strikes. Where technicians perform work on wind turbines during storms, strong winds, ice or snow, or bouts of lightning, the propensity for fires, falls, electrocution, and other potential accidents and injuries to occur significantly heightens.

Site managers should monitor weather forecasts and track wind, storm, lightning, and freezing reports. A proactive safety precaution can be to subscribe to mobile alerts regarding specific parameters set by the forecaster to reflect how weather conditions may affect the wind turbine’s location on your site.

By exercising these five key safety precautions, wind farm owners can make a conscious effort to protect the safety of wind turbine workers. ANEMOI offers comprehensive wind turbine services, from gearbox oil changes to scheduled maintenance and other services. For more information, contact us today.

The wind turbine and maintenance market will continue to grow at an exponential rate. This is according to a report which estimates an expected CAGR of around 8.54% in the sector until 2025. It should come as no surprise, as the benefits of this form of renewable energy have been poised to be undeniable in the years to come. Wind energy has continued to become cheaper and power generation in this form has also expanded to offshore projects, where even more wind can be captured and converted. But with a growing industry, comes maintenance. ANEMOI has compiled the perfect package of services we offer to our customers.

Scheduled maintenance 

Wind turbines need to be consistent, and we understand that. Our wind technicians lubricate moving parts on different components and check connections to ensure the proper operation of generators and other equipment. We offer this service two to three times per year to ensure that your systems operate optimally. 

Gearbox oil changes 

Our staff are highly analytical when changing gearbox oil, taking every care to ensure that your equipment is working at its peak performance. We have four temperature controlled segregated oil tanks for waste, flush, rinse, and filtered new oil.

Manpower augmentation 

We understand that wind energy projects are demanding, which is why we provide short and long term skilled and qualified staff to assist where you might need them. 

Retrofits

Yes, parts have a lifespan, but some components can be replaced or retrofitted to give your assets more time to be online.

The only guarantee to keep your wind turbines working when they need to, is to have them consistently maintained on a schedule. ANEMOI offers technical expertise and comprehensive wind turbine maintenance and servicing – get in touch with us today to discuss how we can assist you.

The development of the U.S. offshore wind energy indicates that if we were to harness power generated from the wind alone, it could be enough to keep the entire country’s lights on, and then some. With copious natural resources on the East and West Coasts, as well as in the Great Lakes, all indications are that the U.S. will be putting more focus on developing and investing in offshore wind power.

Offshore wind energy projects in the U.S. 

It’s hard to imagine that the first offshore wind project, the Block Island Wind Farm on Rhode Island, only came online in 2016. Fast forward just a few years to 2020, and there are now 15 active commercial leases to develop offshore wind projects in the U.S. The Department of Energy suggests that if stable policies were to be in place, the country could develop as much as 86 GW through offshore projects by 2050, recognising the potential benefits to be reaped from these undertakings. 

The first wind project in federal U.S. waters, the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project, just recently installed two required turbines in June 2020, which will have a 12 MW generation capacity. While the project is still undergoing testing, it is expected to start operating commercially by the end of 2020.

The advantages of these projects do, of course, also come with their own ripple effect of driving economic growth in various other industries that will assist with the construction. The American Wind Energy Association reported early in 2020 that 83 000 jobs could be created by 2030 from the development of 30 000 MW offshore wind along the East Coast. Add to that, the AWEA estimates that it could also add $25 billion in annual economic output by that time.

For any commercial offshore wind energy questions or advice, the qualified team at ANEMOI are here to assist you. Our services include gearbox oil changes, scheduled maintenance, manpower augmentation, and retrofits. ANEMOI is here to assist you with all your offshore energy projects – get in touch today.