Wind farm at Smøla

I got to go to the top of a wind turbine! We (11 PhD students who are all working with wind energy) made a trip about 3 hours south to Smøla, where Statkraft has a 68-turbine (150 MW capacity) wind farm. Our advisor agrees that it's valuable for us to make the trip and funded the trip that we organized.

We lucked out with really beautiful weather - sunny and light wind, so they didn't mind shutting down a turbine for a half hour. I also personally got quite lucky - only 2 people could go up to the top, and my name was one of those drawn at random.

The view from the top was great and it was very cool to see everything up close. It's amazing how big they are (these are relatively small machines, the one we were in was 2.3 MW capacity) and nice to get a hands-on feel for what I'm working on.

To get to Smøla, we took a mini-bus and drove to Kristiansund. It doesn't look very far, but the terrain is tough and we had to make a big loop around the water to get there. Then we took a ferry from Kristiansund to the island and then a bit more driving to get to the wind farm itself.

A little map showing Trondheim and Smøla:

Here's a photo from the ferry (the church is a bit famous, it's called Edøy gamle kirke and dates from around 1190). There was plenty of snow along the drive, but then it got a bit greener just next to the water.

One turbine, viewed from the bottom.

The wind farm, viewed from the top of the turbine! The top of the nacelle was opened up for us and this is looking away from the turbine (you can see the anemometers on the tail).

The gearbox (blue) and emergency brake.

Another aerial view of the farm.

A bit more of the gearbox, a little bit of the shaft, and part of the hub.

A better view of the shaft. The opening to the hub is at the top center of the picture.

Standing on top of the turbine. We had to be strapped in if we stood above a certain level in the nacelle, but the climbing gear was also required for the ladder.

Looking out along one of the blades was really neat. It's amazing how big they are and how much they can be pitched!

After we got down from the turbine, the long sunset started, and it was really beautiful.

After the wind farm visit, we went to see Veidholmen, which is a rugged little fishing village on the island.

I just like the heron in this one...

 

That was such a cool experience! I have also learned that there is a passenger (and bicycle) ferry directly from Trondheim to the island, so I may have to visit again in the summer.