The unique nature of the maritime environment takes a particularly heavy toll on the electrical components at work in offshore wind farms. The HARTING Technology Group has added the Han-Eco
series to its product range, creating another solution for this special application area.
The output from wind farms has risen steadily over recent years. Current plans envisage wind farms providing output up to 15 MW. If these facilities are to be utilized to the fullest extent, they will have to be built in efficient locations. Constant wind at a higher than average speed is persuading operators to build their wind farms offshore, at increasing distances from the coast.
The demands made on wind farm components, whether onshore or offshore, are very high: In addition to resisting strong vibrations and coping with a wide range of temperatures, they also need to ensure a long service life. The trend towards offshore projects places additional strain on wind farm components.
They require protection designed for maritime conditions, must be resistant to the high salt content of the sea air and they must also satisfy higher reliability requirements. Breakdowns at sea can result in long periods of downtime as the farms cannot always be reached immediately.
The HARTING Technology Group has developed a range of connectors, the Han-Eco series, which meets all these demands with a higher protection class (IP 65) and a wider range of operating temperatures from -40 °C to 125 °C.
Furthermore, the Han-Eco series is manufactured from a high-performance plastic which is very resistant to environmental factors such as salt spray and is also extremely robust with regard to its mechanical properties. As it weighs much less than standard solutions, the high-quality Han-Eco series is in line with the trend to reduce the weight of the turbines at work in both onshore and offshore wind farms.
The Han-Eco series is designed for tool-free assembly and the connectors are specially configured for the use of modules. This enables the flexible design of interfaces and results in many combination options. In addition to savings in assembly time, it is also possible to reduce costs overall by optimizing the use of the components. Consequently, these connectors ideally cater to the ongoing modularization trends in wind power systems.