Analysis of a hydrostatic drive wind turbine for improved annual energy production

This paper presents an analysis on ways to improve the annual energy production (AEP) of a wind turbine utilizing a drivetrain that operates based on the hydrostatic transmission. The system configuration of such a drivetrain is explained in details and a comparison of operation and characteristics with existing drivetrains is provided. AEP was estimated for these configurations through appropriate dynamic modeling and operational efficiency optimization. Optimal selection of a number of design variables and system parameters contributed to the improvements in the AEP. Findings of this study demonstrate that the proposed hydrostatic drivetrain improves the AEP of a 750 kW turbine by up to +8% when compared with a geared wind turbine. The AEP improvements of the hydrostatic drive wind turbine were more than 10% for a 1.5 MW system over geared configuration. It is also demonstrated that the efficiency of power generation can be improved under various wind speeds. The suitable selection of synchronous speed of the generator directly improves the efficiency of operation by up to 35% at low wind speeds. An efficiency improvement was also observed under higher operating pressures and longer turbine blades.