Morphic’s Small-scale Wind Turbine in Live Tests

Morphic’s new small-scale wind turbine, SWT20, will now be tested in the toughest possible conditions at the southern end of the island of Öland off the coast of Sweden. The robust 20 kW turbine has been developed for telecom base stations, farms and other demanding applications where reliability and long service intervals are crucial factors. Thanks to Morphic’s advanced blade technology, the turbine is extremely silent and can therefore be used even in built-up areas.
During this week SWT20 will also be presented at the World Mobile Congress in Barcelona, one for the world’s largest telecom expos.

One of our time’s biggest challenges is to meet the need for secure electricity and to do so using renewable sources of energy. This applies equally to the industrialized world and developing countries. There, some 1.6 billion people currently live without electricity and another 1 billion live in areas with uncertain access to electricity.
Morphic’s new small wind turbine, SWT20, has been developed for demanding applications in areas where access to electricity is uncertain, such as telecom base stations or farms, hotels and other small businesses. Here wind power can be used as sole source of energy or as a complement to a diesel generator.

SWT20 is the second generation of small-scale wind turbines developed by Morphic. The first SWT20 to be installed has been operating outside Morphic’s head office in Karlskoga since late 2008.

This week another turbine was raised at an organic farm on southern Öland, for testing in the toughest possible wind conditions. Further wind power contracts are in the pipeline.

“The customers we are targeting have very high requirements in terms of technical quality, performance and reliability. In our development work we placed a strong emphasis on robustness and simplicity for the end user, and these tests are designed to verify the turbine’s high level of accessibility and reliable electrical generation,” says Kenneth Johansson, COO at Morphic Technologies AB.

From February 16 – 19 SWT20 will be presented at the World Mobile Congress in Barcelona, which brings together telecom industry representatives from around the world.

“Our wind turbine is an excellent replacement for or complement to a diesel generator, which is currently the primarily energy source for base stations in countries where the supply of electricity is uncertain. Considering that it takes 20,000 liters of diesel to run a base station for a year and that on-site servicing is required at least once a month, our wind turbine constitutes a very attractive alternative, both in terms of cost efficiency and environmental impact. An investment in Morphic’s turbine also provides operative financial security because you know what your electricity is going to cost for the next 25 years,” Kenneth Johansson says.

SWT20 has been designed for a useful life of 25 years with five-year service intervals. It has duplicate security systems and can be controlled remotely, guaranteeing secure operation and control. The turbine has a direct-drive generator and no gearbox, a component which often causes problems. The blades are made from carbon fiber and have been designed to move through the wind almost noiselessly. SWT20 can be mounted on a tower or mast and can supplement an already existing telecom mast. It has been developed according to the IEC 61400 standard (wind class 2).