Wind energy turbine

• US 7,168,251 B1
• Filed: 12/14/2005
• Issued: 01/30/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/14/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: GE Infrastructure Technology, LLC (General Electric Company)
• Original Assignee: General Electric Company
• Inventors: Janssen, Wilhelm
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, HOANG M
• Application Number:
  US11/302,628
• Time in Patent Office: 412 Days
• Field of Search: 606/411, 415/4.3, 415/4.5, 415/175, 415/177, 290/44, 290/55
• US Class Current: 60/641.1
• CPC Class Codes: F03D 80/60 Cooling or heating of wind motors
• CPC Class Codes: F03D 9/25 the apparatus being an electrical generator F03D9/22 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 10/72 Wind turbines with rotation axis in wind direction

Abstract

A wind energy turbine includes a tower, a nacelle rotatably supported by the tower, a rotor rotatably supported by the nacelle, and at least one unit to be cooled and arranged in the tower and/or the nacelle. The unit is adapted to be cooled by a cooling medium flowing in a cooling circuit from the unit to at least one heat exchanger. The at least one heat exchanger is located outside of the tower and/or nacelle and configured to be cooled by ambient air.

Claims

1. A wind energy turbine comprising

a tower;

a nacelle rotatably supported by said tower;

a rotor rotatably supported by said nacelle;

at least one unit to be cooled and arranged in at least one of said tower and said nacelle;

at least one heat exchanger located outside at least one of said tower and said nacelle, said at least one heat exchanger configured to be cooled by ambient air; and

a cooling circuit providing flow communication between said at least one unit and said at least one heat exchanger, said cooling circuit containing a cooling medium flowing between said unit and said at least one heat exchanger for facilitating cooling said unit.

2. The wind energy turbine according to claim 1 wherein said cooling circuit includes multiple heat exchangers connected in at least one of series and parallel to each other and arranged along an outer circumference of at least one of said tower and an outer side of said nacelle.

3. The wind energy turbine according to claim 2 further comprising a manifold for selectively guiding the cooling medium to at least one of said multiple heat exchangers.

4. The wind energy turbine according to claim 1 wherein said cooling circuit is a closed loop.

5. The wind energy turbine according to claim 1 wherein said cooling circuit comprises at least one pump for pumping the cooling medium from said unit to said at least one heat exchanger.

6. The wind energy turbine according to claim 2 wherein said cooling circuit further comprises a first manifold arranged upstream and a second manifold arranged downstream of said multiple heat exchangers.

7. The wind energy turbine according to claim 1 further comprising a fan in flow communication with said at least one heat exchanger and configured to generate an air flow for cooling said at least one heat exchanger.

8. A method for cooling a unit of a wind energy turbine comprising the steps of:

providing a cooling medium along the unit to be cooled to at least one heat exchanger arranged at an outer side of the wind energy turbine; and

cooling the cooling medium in the heat exchanger with ambient air.

9. The method according to claim 8 further comprising the step of guiding the cooling medium to at least one selective heat exchanger of a plurality of heat exchangers located within different areas of the outer side of the wind energy turbine.

10. The method according to claim 8 wherein the step of providing cooling medium comprises pumping the cooling medium through a closed loop cooling circuit comprising the unit to be cooled and the at least one heat exchanger.