On the way down the mountain, the live broadcast team came to another large-scale new energy project in the Shannan area dozens of kilometers away - * Cuomei Zhegu Wind Farm. Don't underestimate this wind farm, it is currently the highest wind farm in the world, and it was put into operation in August this year, so how is it doing now?Can these wind power adapt to the working environment of the plateau?Let's take a look at the report that the reporter just sent back.
CCTV reporter Zhang Congjing: As you can see, the real-time data shows that the altitude of the position I am at is as high as 5,066 meters. The Cuomei Zhegu Wind Farm, with an altitude of 5,000 meters to 5,200 meters, has a capacity of 726 MW. The wind at the scene is very strong, and it is difficult for me to speak now, and the staff told me that there is a force 8 gale here today, and it is now the windiest time of the year, and it is also the time when the power generation is the highest.
As you can see, these huge wind turbines are now rotating in the wind, continuously producing green electricity. They rotate up the swept area to cover three standard football fields.
CCTV reporter Zhang Congjing: At this time, you may ask, why do you design such a large blade?The staff told me that due to the lower density of the air at high altitudes, the wind of the same speed appears "overwhelming" here compared to the plains. For example, if the wind in the plains is a bowl of rice, then the wind in the plateau is like a bowl of porridge. Therefore, we need a larger "bowl" to "feed" the fan so that it can operate efficiently.
There are 25 of these "wind giants" in this wind farm, and all of them were connected to the grid in October this year. The electricity generated is mainly transmitted to the Shannan area, providing stable power for the local area**. At full load, these 25 fans can produce more than 70,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity in one hour.
It is not only the first ultra-high altitude wind power development technology research and technology demonstration project in the autonomous region, but also the first wind power project successfully integrated into the main power grid.
Wang Yang, Executive Deputy Manager of the Three Gorges Cuomei Wind Power Construction Project Department: At present, we have completed the integrated planning of the Three Gorges Cuomei "wind, solar and storage", and the scale of the machine will reach more than 4 million kilowatts.
How can wind turbines overcome altitude sickness?
On an absolute plateau of more than 5,000 meters, not only people will suffer from altitude sickness, but also wind turbines. So, how do wind turbines overcome altitude sickness?
Altitude sickness symptom 1: fatigue.
The size of wind energy is directly proportional to the density of the air, but the air density is low above the plateau, resulting in the same wind speed, the speed of the wind turbine slows down, and the power generation power decreases
Altitude sickness symptom 2: easy to get sick.
The wind speed in the plateau area changes quickly, sometimes the wind is small in the morning and evening, but the super strong wind blows at noon, and the drastic change in wind speed leads to large fluctuations in the power of the fan, and the heat dissipation conditions in the high-altitude areas with low air pressure are poor, which is easy to "fever", and in extreme weather, it will also hail and be struck by lightning. In the end, it may be the engineer who repairs the high-reflection fan.
Altitude sickness symptom 3: born cold.
If you want to build a fan on the frozen soil layer, it will be affected by frost heave, and the foundation will be destroyed, which will affect the safe operation of the fan.
The completion and commissioning of the project has laid the foundation for the subsequent development of "base-based, large-scale, centralized and contiguous" wind power in ultra-high altitude areas, and filled the gap in the industry of wind power development and construction in ultra-high altitude areas. To put it simply, what I wanted to do in the past I couldn't do, now I have done it, and I am doing it better and better. After the project is fully put into operation, the annual power generation will exceed 200 million kWh, which can meet the annual electricity consumption of nearly 140,000 households in the surrounding area.
In the past, the energy structure of the first region was more dependent on hydropower, and the power grid was unstable during the dry season, which affected the production and life of the people in Tibetan areas.
Reporter Zhu Jiang, Zhang Wei, Zhang Congjing).