Solar Farms

This is your typical Azimuth/Elevation application that you may have seen on radio telescopes and other lower quantity projects. The difference here is that the funding is orders of magnitude greater. Test sites can use 100's of servo drives while full sized solar farms use 1,000's. The servo drives are used to position large mirrors so they reflect sunlight into a focused area to achieve very high temperatures. This heat source powers the electrical generation equipment. A typical solar farm produces power in the 100's of megawatts.

To maintain the highest efficiency the mirrors need to be accurately positioned which makes this an ideal job for servo drives. Servo drives also make it possible to react quickly and smoothly to put the mirrors into a "safe" position during high winds. A major safety requirement is to always know where the reflected light is directed. For example you would never want the reflected light to pass over a highway or other sensitive area. Without computer safety oversight and servos, this situation could conceivably happen during a maintenance operation.

• DPCANTE-040B080 - Custom 2-axis

• Azimuth
• Elevation

• DPCANIE-030a400

Wind Power

Besides pitch and direction control on traditional wind turbines, another use for servo drives is for the generation of electricity. Back driving the motor puts the servo drive in a regeneration mode that creates power that can be used directly or saved for later use in batteries.

One wind generator uses a large helium filled balloon as the turbine. The servo drives are used to get the balloon spinning during launch while at low altitude. As the balloon lifts into the low altitude nocturnal jet stream (600 to 1000 feet) it no longer needs to be turned by the drives. This is when the drives switch the direction of the torque and begin to capture the regeneration energy. This application generates 10-25kW of power and is targeted for temporary power generation in remote areas.

• DPCANIR-015A400

• Combination Regeneration Unit / Motion Primer

• DPRANIE-015A400
• DPCANIE-030A400

Ocean / Tidal Power

These applications use servo drives for regeneration. Some generators capture the energy from the up and down motion of ocean swells, while others capture the energy from ocean currents.

• DPRANIE-100A400

• Power Regenerator

• DPRNLIE-100A400
• DPRANIR-100A400

Fuel Cells

Fuel cells create electricity by reacting fuel on the anode side and an oxidant on the cathode side in the presence of an electrolyte. The fuel can be in the form of hydrogen, hydrocarbons and alcohols. Oxygen is the predominant oxidant and can be taken directly from air.

Air going into the fuel cell needs to be compressed and precisely controlled. To do this efficiently, high speed centrifugal pumps similar to the superchargers found on cars are used. The servo drive controls the motor that drives the pump. The servo drive will typically be in Hall Velocity mode and maintain speeds of around 50,000 rpm.

• B100A40AC - Modified
• B30A40 - Modified
• B60A40AC - Modified
• S60A40 - Modified

• High-Speed Velocity-Regulated Centrifugal Pump

• B30A40AC
• S30A40AC

Electrochemical Energy Storage

Also known as regenerative fuel cells, these differ from standard fuel cells in that the reaction can go in both directions. This gives electrochemical energy storage devices the ability to act as batteries to store energy and release the energy when it's needed. In this all-liquid application there is no need for a high speed air pump as with standard fuel cells. Instead, the servo drives are used to control the liquid flow.

The high capacity of these devices make them a perfect complement to alternative energy sources. Since wind and solar generators fluctuate throughout the day, an Energy Storage System (ESS) can act as a buffer to maintain power output during low cycles and store power when excess energy is created.

In another use, the ESS can reduce the peak of a customer's energy load as seen by the distribution system. This improves utilization of assets on the electrical grid and manages the customer energy demand to average instead of peak load resulting in reduced Maximum Demand charges.

Systems range in size from 25kW to 10MW power delivery with the capacity to deliver this power for over 8 hours on a charge.

• B40A8
• AZBH12A8

• Flow Control

• Z-Drives