Ultralarge Wind Power System Delivered

Feb. 07, 2006

 

Ultralarge Wind Power System Delivered

 Tokyo, February 7, 2006 – Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd. announced today that Kawasaki and Penta-Ocean Construction Co., Ltd. have delivered a large wind power system with a rated output of 12,000 kW to Green Power Setana Co., Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Electric Power Development Co., Ltd. (J-Power). The system has been installed on the oceanfront in Setana-cho, Kudo County, Hokkaido. It employs six turbines manufactured by Vestas Wind Systems A/S (Denmark), with one of the nation's largest power outputs for a single unit. It marks the first time that a 2,000 kW unit will be installed in Hokkaido.

 Kawasaki has been actively pursuing sales opportunities for wind power systems, regarded to be one of the most promising energy technologies in the market today. In 2000, it took a stake in Vestech Japan Corp., the exclusive Japanese distributor of products by Vestas, which boasts the world's largest market share for wind power systems.

 The turbines in Hokkaido have a hub height of about 67 m and a rotor diameter of 80 m. Pitch control, which optimizes the blade angle, has been implemented to enable maximum generation of power at wind speeds of 4-25 m/s. The unit is also equipped with Optispeed* to limit power fluctuations caused by rapid wind changes and to provide stable generation of power. About 35 million kWh of power, equivalent to the annual power demand of 10,000 households, will be generated each year.

*OptispeedTM
Optispeed is a variable-speed drive control system with a converter that allows rotor speed to vary up to 60%, when typically it was 10%, thus realizing the most economical power generation efficiency.