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US 7,168,251 B1Granted
Wind energy turbine
AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorWilhelm Janssen
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A wind energy turbine includes a tower, a nacelle rotatably supported by the tower, a rotor rotatably supported by the nacelle, and at least one unit to be cooled and arranged in the tower and/or the nacelle. The unit is adapted to be cooled by a cooling medium flowing in a cooling circuit from the unit to at least one heat exchanger. The at least one heat exchanger is located outside of the tower and/or nacelle and configured to be cooled by ambient air.
Claims10
A wind energy turbine comprising
- a tower;
- a nacelle rotatably supported by said tower;
- a rotor rotatably supported by said nacelle;
- at least one unit to be cooled and arranged in at least one of said tower and said nacelle;
- at least one heat exchanger located outside at least one of said tower and said nacelle, said at least one heat exchanger configured to be cooled by ambient air;
- and
- a cooling circuit providing flow communication between said at least one unit and said at least one heat exchanger, said cooling circuit containing a cooling medium flowing between said unit and said at least one heat exchanger for facilitating cooling said unit.
4 more elements
A method for cooling a unit of a wind energy turbine comprising the steps of:
- providing a cooling medium along the unit to be cooled to at least one heat exchanger arranged at an outer side of the wind energy turbine;
- and
- cooling the cooling medium in the heat exchanger with ambient air.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.