A clearly visible unique feature of the SCD Technology is the use of two-blade technology. The first two – blade wind turbine with a relevant capacity made by aerodyn dates back to the mid 1980s already. When this turbine was designed, a consistent effort was made to avoid anything superfluous. It had to be as compact as possible. The philosophy for the extremely compact turbines and the entire design made in Germany was to ‘reduce to the max’. This was achieved with a wind turbine that fulfils the functions of load bearing and external housing and does not therefore contain main frame or housings. The result is a compact turbine that achieves its 3.0 MW output with a transport length of barely 7.8 metres. The tower head mass of the 3.0 MW turbine is approximately 108 t. The 6.0 MW SCD weighs around 308 t and the 8.0 MW around 395 t.
All components have been designed by aerodyn and its partners to interact as well as possible and have been optimised using the most recent methods. The four main components include the hub, the gear box with the rotor bearing, the generator and the head carrier, which is where all other components are housed. Modern simulation programs are used to create a clear picture of component loads. Using these data, superfluous mass could be eliminated and after all, less material also means reduced component and transport costs. The interaction between the rotor blade and the tower wake was calculated precisely using the CFD program. The rectifier section has been installed into the head carrier and the grid-side inverter into the tower base. The inverter complies with all network codes and is also suitable for 50- and 60-hertz grids.
The gear box of the SCD Technology contains a flexpin bearing in which the gear wheels sit on flexible bolts. The advantage is that any movement caused by occurring forces can be compensated. The generator has been designed to be a robust synchronous 16-pole machine with permanent magnets.