December 8, 2006—Knight & Carver’s Wind Blade Division has completed the first in a series of 27.5-meter wind blades as part of a US Department of Energy (DOE) project that the company says ranks among the industry’s most innovative advances in wind energy production.
Named “STAR” (“Sweep Twist Adaptive Rotor”), the blade’s most distinctive characteristic is a gently curved tip, which, unlike the majority of blades in current use, is specially designed for low-wind-speed regions, says the company.
Sized overall at 27.5 meters (approx. 90’2″) x 2.4 meters (approx. 7’8″), the blade takes maximum advantage of all wind speeds, including marginal speeds. Instead of the traditional linear shape, the blade features a curvature toward the trailing edge, designed to relieve pressure on the blade and turbine drive train.
Knight & Carver, which received DOE’s 2005 “Outstanding Research and Development Partnership Award” for the project, estimates that the blade will capture between 5 and 10 percent more energy than blades currently in use.
The project is a cooperative effort among several companies and institutions: Knight & Carver YachtCenter; Sandia Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM; Dynamic Design, Davis, CA; MDZ Consulting, Clear Lake Shores, TX; University of California at Davis, Mechanical/Aeronautical; and NSE Composites, Seattle, WA.
