The new rotor variant adds 12% more swept area and is claimed to increase annual energy production by 4.5% to 6.5%, while reducing the impact on manufacturing costs and time to market.
As per the company, this new variant can offer lower cost of energy at sites where there are lighter winds.
It has been designed to be optimised for specific low-wind conditions which make the turbine perfectly suited for certain markets such as India and several other geographies.
The extended rotor joins Nordex’s existing rotor models of AW132/3000 which was recently upgraded for medium-wind IEC IIb conditions and uses a concept where the increased blade length is integrated into the root of the rotor.
Nordex Group, chief scientific officer, Patxi Landa said: “The AW140/3000 adds to the range of products we have to reduce the cost of energy in the low-wind high capacity factor segment typical of certain grid-constrained non-European markets.
“This latest advance builds on the global success we’ve had with the AW3000 platform and demonstrates a continued commitment to expand our product lines to bring winning solutions to our customers.”
The new AW140/3000 turbine can be installed on 120m concrete towers or steel towers with hub heights ranging between 82 and more than 100m. Nordex says that it will operate a prototype and obtain a Type Certification next year. Series production of the rotor is expected to start in next autumn.
In early September, the company introduced the new 4MW class wind turbine with two variants of 4.0MW and 4.5MW. These two variants were presented at Husum Wind. This new wind turbine has a rotor diameter of 149m.
Nordex stated that last year, it had an installed capacity of more than 21GW in more than 25 countries, generating revenues of €3.4bn.
Image: Nordex releases new 140m rotor variant for 3MW turbines. Photo: Courtesy of Nordex SE.
