How Wind Turbines Really Work: The Hidden Secrets
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doubly fed induction generator working principle, mechanical engineering, wind sensors, blade orientation, rotor diameter
#Energy #Engineering #sustainability
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Thank you for enhancing our knowledge!
All that talk about Hertz, hurt my brain!😢
k
Where can we find that wind walking thing.
Link in video description @@pulsedmotor
As an electrician, some of what you say does go over my head when it's outside my field, but i love to learn the things I can grasp. Great channel!!!
None of us are born with the knowledge, it comes with time and effort. You're putting in the time and effort by watching something you don't yet fully grasp.
The power coming from the generator goes to a converter where the power frequency get converted to match the grid 60HZ. Insulated gate bipolar transistors and capacitors are used to achieve this. The power goes from the generator, converter, transformer, grid.
@@chrisanderson6538 This is true for small turbines in the 10s or 100s of kW. In the MW range it is almost always done by doubly fed induction generators because the converter doesn't have to pass the whole power but only a small amount to feed the rotor. This is usually in the order of the difference between the mains frequency and the rotors rotational frequency. So if you plan to have 100MW and +-10% deviation in speed, you need a 10MW converter instead of an 100MW one
Wind turbines extract energy from the rotation of the earth. This guarantees a slowing down of earth’s ration and inevitable collapse of the earths orbit round the sun … Even a few millimetres will see some real global boiling.
I just understood from u a whole chapter of fluid mechanics better than an entire semester in the faculty of engineering. Thank you very much fellow engineer
Glad it was useful
Thank you for making this video! I am a wind turbine technician and I watch this channel all the time. When i was in school this channel was great for helping me understand the basics of 3 phase electricity and power generation. Your content is very easy to understand and entertaining with all the animations. I always send people to your videos that has trouble understanding anything electrical. Its great to rewatch videos to brush up on the theory and basics from time to time. Thanks and keep up the great content
Glad to hear you enjoy the channel
Hey I need your help for ai project in this domain., How can I reach out to you..........?
Im just starting the studies this week.i start from zero.could you giv me basic tips what to study so ill succeed better. Thank you.
@weegal know theory and applications of both AC and DC electricity. Understand the concepts of IO systems and PLCs. Look into ethernet and fiber optic communication systems. Have a basic understanding of hydraulics. Pay good attention while they are teaching you safe climbing techniques. Most importantly be willing to learn and try to involve yourself in every job you can at the site. You will probably spend alot of time pushing a towel and cleaning things until you learn how to work safely and how things work in the real world but you don't want to rush into anything because all these systems seriously hurt you in many different ways. Working safe and coming home is most important in this industry always keep that in mind over fixing the tower. Good luck.
Great explanation of doubly fed induction wind turbines. These are referred to as type 3 wind turbines. Another method like the one used in your small scale wind turbine is too rectify and invert the variable frequency power from an induction or permeant magnet generator to the grid frequency. This is what the newer type 4 wind turbines do but they require higher capacity power electronics to do this because they are converting 100% of the wind power as opposed to only a small proportion that is being back fed into the doubly fed induction machine like in a type 3 wind turbine. The reduced cost of power electronics and lack of brushes and gears however is making type 4 more popular.
17:17 this electrical load can also be used to vary the power output and breaking of the wind turbine as opposed to mechanical and aerodynamic breaks. Allot of smaller wind turbines use a maximum power point tracking algorithm via the the voltage on the inverter to vary the current and hence torque of the generator which can control the rotation and power output of the turbine. Small scale wind turbines can also use large variable resistors as dump loads but this is less efficient.
I love this channel, just straight to the point, very informative without all the BS and opinions. Much more in depth than any other videos usually.
This video should go in the education hall of fame. Had to pause many times because it was moving fast, but holy cow I learned everything. Great job and keep doing it just like this!!
I grew up in imperial valley, and in great weather conditions, from the valley, you could see the silhouette of the turbine field near acorn casino. Just dozens of em, backlit by the sun easily noticeable. Now, if you go to imperial valley, many of the farms have been replaced with solar farms, and at the base of the mountains going to san diego, there is a massive wind turbine farm. Coupled with the areas numerous geo plants, the area is a hotbead of renewable energy. Thank you for finally answering one of dozens of questions i had about my homes renewble energies. This was a great video!!
Where's your food coming from?
@@MelbourneHandyman the Central Valley, which has much more fresh water than the Imperial Valley
I'm currently studying this topic during my master's, and I cannot express enough how spot-on this video is. Thanks so much for the great content; please keep it up; you are really making a difference to students!
I am reviewing my 5 years of engineering courses from this channel and to be honest I understood many things from “The Engineering Mindset” which I never understood during my full university years. Love this channel ❤
The virtual rotating magnetic field of the to rotor done by the excitation to achieve rated frequency at lower rotor speeds is just brilliant.
how does that work i didn't understand that part
@@egoinjury in conventional machines, you can imagine a magnet with north and south poles rotating with the prime mover (i.e. a gas turbine). So the frequency of the generator is directly proportional to the speed of the shaft. In wind turbines, imagine that the same magnet is able to rotate at a different speed than the shaft, so when the shaft is slow, the magnet will rotate to compensate for the generator to match the grid frequency (50 or 60 Hz).
@@r2d2chia sure, some sort of slip ring housing over the drive shaft I guess but how is the difference achieved? Maybe the answer is too long to explain but I’d like to know
@@egoinjury just by triggering the excitation’s SCRs to the poles in the correct rotational speed. Remember that it’s not the actual shaft speed that determines the generator frequency, but the rotation speed of the poles in the field (shaft), which in turn induce a voltage in the stator.
It takes a lot of effort and time to create such a comprehensive video about wind turbines. Much appreciated ❤
As a wind tech I work on the components described in this video every day. This video is spot on and a good visual guide.
The way the frequency is regulated by adding/subtracting the frequency of the exciter coil is brilliant. I never realized the turbine output was synced to grid I assumed they went into some kind of controller and then that synced to the grid.
Yes your assumption is correct. There are many different methods used. For example in offshore power production the AC current can be converted into DC for transportation through the ocean. A nother method is to convert AC into DC and then back to DC with exactly 50Hz. Power electronics are quiet efficient so conversion losses are not that high.
Inverters are expensive so skipping them is great
@@aw244The use of solid state d.c. power to 3 phase converters, also allows power factor correction to be applied which increases overall efficiency.
This is a great video and it explains the inner workings of these towers quite well. I actually work on the larger 1.5-4 MW wind turbine platforms for a career but never really know how the generator worked till now. The larger towers use a 2 stage planetary gearbox vs a single stage like what was shown in the video.
Every time I got the detail that I found fulfilling, it was followed up by another best fit detail and I was thinking why I was not anticipating that and there's how the whole experience has been nothing but satisfying.
Wow the concept of the doubly fed induction generator was just genius. Very well explained, thank you!
9 out of 10 as a windturbine technician i can confirm everything mentioned in the video. Ignoring shadow cast, lubrication and cooling of the gear, main converter. Everything else is very precise. Some Companys run there Windturbines with electric motors but some only use hydrolics to pitch or yaw the turbine.
my wife used to be a buyer for some wind farms, I always wondered how they maintained 60 hz. Great explanation!
I was looking for a video like this in order to add more content to my report. Thanks sir Paul.
It can't be more clear than this. Thank you Paul!
This video gave me a better understanding of Yaw and Pitch mechanism! Thank u
i just started as a windturbine technician 8 months ago and its a really interesting job. Also most wings with variable pitch are hydraulik controlled and not with elektrik motors
All this is so insane This is exactly why I love Engineering
This channel is very informative. Has given a software developer the electronic hardware bug 😄 I am actually starting to understand this stuff all from watching your videos. The diagrams and 3d models are top quality! Keep up the good work 👍
i really love the way they change the landscape. they are very elegant and in a way futuristic and I like watching them spin. It also looks like a big ad for Mercedes, but this is an inside joke between my friends lol
I agree! I can understand the annoying moving shadows people talk about, but if they're several miles off the coast I think it just adds to the view
@@TehRealChruZ Any more news about all the whales washing up on shores near these wind farms? Or dead birds on land?
There is no scientific evidence that wind turbines at sea kill whales. None. There is evidence that birds collide with wind turbines, but a tiny amount. Far more are killed by cats or air pollution or cars or flying into houses and windows. They are large, slow moving and fairly noisy structures.
in this day and age of short videos and concentration, i had so much fun watching this and understood it very well because of the way you illustrate things, very good job, thank you, hope you keep on going!
Probably one of the best (If not the best) video about wind turbines.
I learn a lot about wind turbine from this channel. Really great content and somewhat easy to follow with practical demonstration
Very great explanation, easy to understand. All of the major part well explained. I'd love to see the explanation of dynamic and stability aspect for the smaller wind turbine because they don't use DFIG
Your stuff has really reached a new level recently. Fantastic
Concise and insightful some complex concepts portrayed with incredible elegance.
Outstanding content! I'm a software engineer with some interest in electrical engineering and I can say it was quite easy to follow along. Phenomenal visualizations too!
Now that was a very interesting but rather long winded video! Well done! 👍👍💥💥
lol I see what you did there
Thanks! I had always wondered how the frequency was controlled on wind turbines. How do they parallel to the grid? Getting all those things to run in phase sounds challenging.
Frequency converters at the bottom of the tower
Speaking in general terms (it can get complicated on the micro level... so I'll stick to Macro) power produced by the generator is run through a "rectifier" (actualy an IGBT module) where the dirty AC is turned into DC. Its stored on a large capacitor bank then inverted into 60Hz by another IGBT module before leaving the turbine. The controlling circuitry has a grid moniter that watches the grid and tells the turbines IGBT module when to fire so it matches the grid. Dirty AC ----> Smooth DC ----> Clean 60Hz AC ready for use on the grid.
The grid also uses reactive power from the turbine ( dirty energy )so its not always clean @@calebkemplay6040
The efficiency has definitely increased, but wind is variable. True, you can have wind at night, but lately in the Antelope Valley in Southern California we've had little to no wind days except today. My house roof mounted solar panels are a great example of generating power and don't require much maintenance. If I had a LARGE piece of land I'd have both the panels and the turbine. When standing in the AV's wind turbine "farm," I noted how it sounded like a jet engine's turbine. Very interesting! Good description of operation Paul in this video!
I worked on a site that had a huge wind turbine on the land around 50-70 feet from where I worked, it was pretty cool but very intimidating when it was rotating at speed. It did make me think if it goes wrong, someone is dying. I think they're cool but would rather not work around the potential debris field! Also, not sure how this channel wasn't suggested to me before but it was an easy sub before I finished watching your solar panels video, very clear and easy to understand as well as great visualisations, no wonder you are 3.4mil subs deep, great work and thanks.
One of the best material I've seen before!
I love how the thumbnail is a burned out husk of a wind turbine. Fires in them are actually pretty common.
the worst case scenario for a wind turbine is the best case scenario for coal plants
LOVE! ABSOLUTELY LOVE your videos and your down to earth explanation. I watch them for hours. gotta request though, might be a-bit outside, but how about "the 1553 Data Bus"?
Very informationally dense video, but explained so well! Thank you!
Excellent video sir 👏👏 lots of love from India❤
I love these series about technologies for power generation
Glad to hear. What topic would you like to see next?
@@EngineeringMindsetPerhaps nuclear energy, if you haven't done it before. Homemade examples might be a bit hard to perform though 😅
great video 👍🏻 keep it up. as an engineering student i love to watch this kind of videos
Great video as always! Thank you for that. Question: are the three motors in the blades powered via a slip ring?
Very clever design, thanks for the video
U make understanding easy.. sometimes I do forget but easy to learn ❤😅
As always, a great video and good explanation. Can you also make a video about high side and low side switching with transistors and mosfets, and how to drive them? I have realized that many get confused with that.
See my new MOSFET explained video here➡️: kzhead.info/sun/dNuLeteynJFvoGw/bejne.html
Really loving these 3d models and animations used.
Do you have more videos available or would you be willing to make a video on the output voltage frequency sequence described in 18:00 to end of video? I am a Mechanical Engineer so I deal with this sort of thing when considering pump and fan motors especially for facilities without power conditioning or perhaps utilizing site power generation or backup power with poor frequency control. I believe the topic is Permanent Magnet vs. Induction type motors. The permanent magnet type motors make sense and that's what we learned about in undergrad but I am curious about this induction type of motor. Superposition of phase makes sense but I am having a hard time understanding how strong the rotor current needs to be and other quirks about the induction motor. You make great videos, I have learned so much from this channel! Cheers.
I would also be really interested in a deeper dive into this this is the first time I've heard of this. And I always asked myself how grid frequency is maintained.
Worth noting a lot of the bigger turbines are also moving to direct drive motors to reduce maintenance costs. As stuff like grid injection can be handled in a central location on the ground.
Fascinating i had some classes as an engineer in renewable energy but not this indebt or this clear. I remember that they said they used a synchronized motor design as the generator because it could be used to kick start the turbine. And that seems to be a half truth , the ability to feeding a frequency in to synchronize the speed to the net does sound like a better reason to have this design thant to just "bring it up to speed".
Would be interesting to know where the energy comes from for all the monitoring, feedback, start up and stopping that required and how that tied in.
Can see towards end of video
I guess more broadly speaking, how much output does a single wind turbine produce compared to what its needed as input to operate the system as a whole?@@EngineeringMindset
5kw to operate 13kw when the yaw and pitch system are running and then outputting it’s rated power output 1.5mw to 6mw depending on the tower
in canada the steps are something like this: spent massive sums of public money, pour 700m3 of concrete way up in the mountains, allow the turbines to spin in the wind for a decade before even connecting them to the grid and then likely take them down as they are already worn out. very green
Great video. I love wind turbines, prefer them offshore though I once stayed at a farm with a pretty big one and it was annoyingly loud - kept me AWAKE!
Yeah, I was surprised how much noise they produce when up close.
Having visited many windfarms, you literally have to be within 50mtrs of a turbine to hear it when one is at full performance. As opposed to listening to gigantic mining trucks rubbling 24/7 in nearby mines, I know which one animals prefer.
@@paulnotdownunder3172 This one was more than 50 metres away. Not by a huge amount... maybe 150 metres. Too loud to live with it, though I'm not comparing it to living next to a coal fired power station or a mine.
@@phooogle in Australia we have min 1.5km setbacks. I'll post a video of me standing literally under a 3.6mw turbine at full spin in a thundestorm.
@@paulnotdownunder3172 Cool. Aye in the UK onshore is effectively banned now and is by community exception only....so if a town want one they can have it but they can't be installed as part of a field of them like offshore can. For us it makes no sense to have them onshore really anyway as the offshore wind is almost always the better option. I mean here we have Dogger Bank in the North Sea where you can practically walk miles into the North Sea and it is only a handful of metres deep.
Icing conditions can be very hazardous with respect to wind turbine operations. Seldom mentioned in discussions on the topic. Good Vid. Enjoyed it.🍻
Interesting point
Really great video, to understand wind turbine concepts, Thanks team.
Another brilliant episode, like always, do you have the content of this episode available to read in your website? i could not find it!
Reminds me of my days in AEA1 school in Millington, TN, where I learned how to work on fighter jets....
Great, really great content, congratulations for your work
That was interesting. I never though about how you could adjust a generator to have a stable output frequency that way.
Great video as always. Much appreciated.
Glad you enjoyed it
What a wonderful film , these should be used in schools 😊
thanks for this informative video! nice animations and explanations
Great vid! Does anyone know more details on how the controller adjusts the magnetic field to ensure a 60 Hz output?
i was scrolling through comments to find out more about that, i didn't quite get it either
Brilliant video with excellent explanations.
How are 3, Pitch motors wired as the Nose cone is 360 rotating ???? Slip rings , Brushes ? thanks for a great video
Slip ring on the gearbox that feeds all the control wiring to the hub. Pitch motors have battery for backup.
Just amazing work and easy to understand concept.
Glad you liked it
Excellent presentation!
Excellent video, thank you!
Very insightful and well made viideo. I wish you more success in your work
Nice explanation about wind turbines
Amazing work here!
Currently commissioning the protection on 9 4.8MW turbines. They really are a site to behold
This is a good video. Very detailed.
Glad it was helpful!
Very interesting! Thank you Paul!
Amazing explanation👏👏
Amazing explanation 👌✨
Relatable childhood connection @ 6:50 Weeeeeee!
Hello could you make a video on equipment such as soldering irons and hot air stations
Awesome explanation!!!
Very well explained
Oh that was a very nice touch :) Thank u. Greetings from Germany
Glad you liked it!
Thank you very much for the video
Amazing chanel😮 thank you!
This video is mesmerizing... 👌
How do they account for the potential failure of the wind vane? If it broke off, would the system know? This was an absolutely amazing video.
I’m a apprentice wind turbine tech by trade on the ones I work on usually it sends a error code to a sort of computer system built in which then would either stop it or only show it as a fault
Wow... Amazing video. Good job.
Could a gravity battery be attached to the column to regulate the over speed? And then sometimes feed back into the generator to get constant rotation during times of low speed?
That's awesome , pouvez vous faire un video concernant un hacheur ❤
I used to live on a hill that had a small/medium sized test wind turbine on it. This was 30 odd years ago. Don’t remember ever hearing it unless you went up to the top of the hill. Also sadly isn’t not always Sunny or windy. Sometimes it can be neither. Hence why we need ways to store energy too.
Did you know, that the big wind turbines (like the one on the North Sea in the waters of The Netherlands, the turbine blades need to be electrically started, and when it rotates at the minimum required speed, it then can start producing electricity. If those turbines are not “jump-started” then the windturbine simply remains stationairy. The blades are too big to be self starting… I do not have the exact numbers, but to jump start it, it needs as much energy as a small village uses in a day. The information was given to me by a good friend who works for a national grid company (Tennet (Exience)) in The Netherlands.
yeah, I remember the big deal about all those diesel generators!
Good introduction. I learned that rotating a stator can control frequency. However, if a stator is rotating, then is it still a stator? 🙂 Some turbines don't use gearboxes, and are called direct drive - they can be recognized because they have a wide nacelle and a large diameter generator full of permanent magnets. Also, some turbines output DC, using huge IGBT semiconductors so they don't have to worry about frequency control and synchronization, and can just concentrate of maximum power point tracking, keeping a constant output voltage but variable current. This makes transmission and combination of multiple turbines much easier, before being inverted and output to the grid.
a rotating stator, sounds tricky!
Wish I discovered this channel before I started Engineering school, still happy I found it though
This teaches more valuable information than any university lecture of 3 hours.
I always wondered how the hell the generators are keeping constant 50 hz. Thanks for the explanation.
I've always wondered if the generator was using some trickery or just DC into inverters and out now I know the trick and well explained thanks.
Please can you make video on PID controller? 👍
Please do a video on electrolysis and how that charges a battery using the different methods!! I can't find a good video to help make it make sense. Thanks for all the knowledge over the years. Keep doing God's work