A multi-megawatt test facility for renewable energy research

Abstract

This paper documents the design and development effort for constructing a multi-megawatt mechanical and electrical test facility for renewable energy research. The mechanical test platforms are specifically designed to explore the machine dynamics of wind turbine nacelles. The electrical test areas can be interconnected with the mechanical platforms to facilitate complete mechanical and electrical evaluation of wind turbine performance related to grid code requirements, or can be operated independently as multi-megawatt test bays for testing and model verification of other devices.