Friday, September 25, 2009

General Electric Gives Gearless Wind Turbines A Big Boost

Gearless Wind Power The winds of change could soon shake up traditional gearbox turbines GE

From Popular Science:

Magnet-based wind turbine tech moves forward with GE investment.

Conventional wind turbines have an Achilles heel in the form of their clunky and expensive gearboxes. But that could change with GE's recent purchase of a company that has developed gearless turbine technology based on magnets.

Gearboxes act as the middleman to convert the slow rotations of wind turbine blades into the faster rotations needed for generators to create electricity. The downside of such gears comes from their high-maintenance requirements due to constant stress from wind turbulence.

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