Focus Around the world
It’s a first in the Caribbean: Italy-based Leitwind installs 6 wind turbines that can stand up to local hurricanes
Leitwind has developed turbine blades able to withstand extreme wind speeds for Grande-Terre, an island in the French West Indies
Six wind energy generators consisting of 1.65 MW turbines with advanced blades that can stand up to the force of Caribbean hurricane winds and designed by Leitwind, an Italian company based in the Bolzano province city of Vipiteno, have been installed in the French West Indies island of Grande-Terre.
The €15 million wind energy project was commissioned to Leitwind by French energy giant Total Quadran and is expected to produce 23,000,000 kWh/year of renewable energy, which will be used to supply the island’s power grid.
The journey to these wind energy generators was not an easy one. The company had to face many challenges, both on the side of technology (to design particularly strong blades) and on the side of logistics (installation began in October 2020 and was completed in May).
In designing the blades, Leitwind had to take many local factors into consideration, such as the warm temperatures, the high humidity levels, the risk of floods due to heavy rains, and the possibility of grid failures. However, the most complex factor the design team had to deal with was the high winds typical of the Caribbean environment and their rapid change of direction depending on cyclone and turbulence intensity.
Based on these conditions, the Italian company developed the “LS39-H”, a new blade model able to withstand the strong local winds (with gusts up to 250 km/h), installed on the “Typhoon” version of the LTW80 turbine.
The revolutionary blade was tested for safety and strength by two U.S.-based centres (the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center and the Wind Technology Testing Center in Boston), which established a reliability of 20 years.
Components and working equipment were shipped by sea, while over-the-road transport of the material to the site could be done only at night due to traffic restrictions at Grande-Terre.
Despite the difficulties encountered along the way, Leitwind is satisfied with the results obtained, saying the new blade highlights the company’s innovative power in the global wind energy market.
Part of the High Technology Industries (HTI) entrepreneurial group, Leitwind is the only Italian manufacturer of megawatt-class turbines and the developer of the DirectDrive system for wind turbines (also currently used in cable cars). The company has installed 379 turbines around the world, for a total capacity of 516.5 MW.
The €15 million wind energy project was commissioned to Leitwind by French energy giant Total Quadran and is expected to produce 23,000,000 kWh/year of renewable energy, which will be used to supply the island’s power grid.
The journey to these wind energy generators was not an easy one. The company had to face many challenges, both on the side of technology (to design particularly strong blades) and on the side of logistics (installation began in October 2020 and was completed in May).
In designing the blades, Leitwind had to take many local factors into consideration, such as the warm temperatures, the high humidity levels, the risk of floods due to heavy rains, and the possibility of grid failures. However, the most complex factor the design team had to deal with was the high winds typical of the Caribbean environment and their rapid change of direction depending on cyclone and turbulence intensity.
Based on these conditions, the Italian company developed the “LS39-H”, a new blade model able to withstand the strong local winds (with gusts up to 250 km/h), installed on the “Typhoon” version of the LTW80 turbine.
The revolutionary blade was tested for safety and strength by two U.S.-based centres (the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center and the Wind Technology Testing Center in Boston), which established a reliability of 20 years.
Components and working equipment were shipped by sea, while over-the-road transport of the material to the site could be done only at night due to traffic restrictions at Grande-Terre.
Despite the difficulties encountered along the way, Leitwind is satisfied with the results obtained, saying the new blade highlights the company’s innovative power in the global wind energy market.
Part of the High Technology Industries (HTI) entrepreneurial group, Leitwind is the only Italian manufacturer of megawatt-class turbines and the developer of the DirectDrive system for wind turbines (also currently used in cable cars). The company has installed 379 turbines around the world, for a total capacity of 516.5 MW.
