Focus

Recently, Goldwind successfully completed the installation of a 185-meter wind turbine tower, which is equivalent to nearly 60 floors, setting a new global record for onshore wind turbine tower height. This expands new boundaries for the efficient development and utilization of wind energy resources.

The 185-meter wind turbine tower installed this time adopts Goldwind's independently developed steel-concrete hybird tower technology, which can effectively expand the market capacity of the "low wind speed, high wind shear" region, making it possible for areas with wind speeds as low as 4.6m/s to have the conditions for wind power project development and better investment returns. According to actual wind measurements, under the same wind resource conditions, the annual average power generation hours of the 185-meter tower unit are 8.38% higher than the 160-meter tower unit, significantly increasing the power generation profits.

For Goldwind’s 185m steel-concrete hybrid tower, the “Turbine-Tower-Foundation” integrated design is adopted. At the inception phase of wind turbine design and development, shape coupling interaction for steel-concrete tower was performed, living up to the optimal proportion design of equipment to steel-concrete tower, and concrete tower to steel tower. Given equivalent load-bearing capacity, the concrete structure is superior to steel structure in terms of structural stiffness. Moreover, concrete structure helps improve the structural safety for its excellent anti-fatigue and damping performance, which is conducive to the safe and high-efficiency running of the wind turbine through the life cycle. In face of technical difficulties such as high hybrid tower vibration and blade tip to tower clearance, Goldwind has developed the supporting technologies such as comprehensive damping enhancement and clearance active protection, in addition to adopting high-strength concrete and small-diameter “waist-reducing” design, which helps effectively control the vibration and refine the extreme dynamic clearance.

Leading technologies and authoritative certification: Goldwind’s 185m steel-concrete hybrid tower has been conferred DNV A-level design certificate, the third international accreditation certification following Goldwind’s 95m steel-concrete hybrid tower UL certificate and 140m steel-concrete hybrid tower DNV certificate in the field of steel-concrete hybrid tower. Currently, Goldwind’s steel-concrete hybrid tower products have been granted a total of 30 products design certificates and type approval certificates, which cover a full range of the company’s mainstream product platforms.

In 2011, in response to the China National High-tech R&D Program (863 Program), Goldwind charted the independent R & D road for integrated design of steel-concrete tower. In 2013, Goldwind completed prototype installation and grid connection of domestic first cast-in-place steel-concrete hybrid tower, and in turn, mastered steel-concrete tower’s load-structure integration design, making a breakthrough from 0 to 1. From completing the installation of the first domestic external prestressed prefabricated steel-concrete hybrid tower prototype in 2015, to gradually achieving mass production and industrialization of high-concrete towers, and now delivering the world's tallest onshore 185-meter steel-concrete hybrid tower, each technological breakthrough of Goldwind has contributed to China's wind power industry's brave ascent to "new heights". Each "new high" is not only a brilliant achievement created together with industry chain partners, but also a vivid epitome of China's wind power industry's persistence in self-reliance, strength, and high-quality development. Behind each "new high" are the innovative results brought about by breakthroughs in key core technologies, the continual accumulation of industry standards and regulations, and the persistent expansion of new frontiers in wind energy utilization.

Large-scale onshore wind turbine is a development trend, in which steel-concrete hybrid tower’s strengths including high bearing capacity, good stiffness, and strong availability for transportation become increasingly prominent and receive extensive recognition from the market and customers. Today, Goldwind’s presence in the steel-concrete hybrid tower market ranks first. By June 2023, Goldwind had signed orders of over 6.5 million kW, and its nationwide standardized factory layout assisted in the project’s precise delivery and ensured its steel-concrete hybrid tower took the leading place in product quality. So far, 185m steel-concrete hybrid tower has been applied in multiple projects, fully exemplifying Goldwind’s staunch technical foundation and excellent engineering capacity and mirroring the market and customers’ high trust in Goldwind.

Since its establishment, Goldwind, by upholding the principle “Technological progress, a source power for corporate development”, has been devoting itself to developing innovation-driven technologies and mature and reliable products and resolving development difficulties for the industry. In the future, Goldwind will continue inheriting the development DNA “Dare to lead the world”, and persist in independent innovation, in order to keep exploring new technical boundary and pushing ahead with the high-quality development of the wind power industry together with a wide range of industry partners.