60KW VAWT...request for RFQ

[steak2k1]

I just saw a request for proposal from the Government of Canada posted on the CANWEA site.  

(http://www.canwea.ca/en/Opportunities.html)

....for a 60Kw on/off grid HAWT.  Must be almost maintenance free, capable of on/off grid operation, direct drive, operable in tropical as well as very northern climes, variable pitch and able to perform at 40% efficiency of potential kinetic wind energy, (that seems a bit high, given betz law..no ??)

Anyway they are calling it the "Universal Small Wind Turbine".

Interesting.

rgds,

stk

[maker of toys]

read through the link.

 after a little preliminary number crunching, parts of it read remarkably like an RFP that has a pre-determined winner, or at least the people writing the RFP have a very definite idea of what they want because it already exists. . . and to get the item that suits the need, they have to write the RFP in such a way as to skew the results.

things like the aforementioned 0.4 CoP, permanant magnet alternators, furling, assembly methodology, tower construction, and the ability to work with an inverter and storage that has already been specified/ordered.  Seems like if this were a truely 'open' RFP, the load hardware would be purchased AFTER the turbine specs were tested and finalized.

(of course, this IS a government we're talking about here. . . )

Not that i'm accusing anyone of malfeasance, just a little 'steering' to ensure that what they finally get is most likely going to be what they've already seen and know suits the application.

should be interesting to watch unfold.

-Dan

[wind4Reg]

I read the RFP and it seems to only apply to HAWTs and it looks like if you are not already a wind turbine company with at least 10 years experience that you might as well forget about it. They should just go buy a small Vestas and save themselves the hassle of a RFP.

[steak2k1]

Well ya know, having recently sold the Canadian Dept of Defense a large Gantry cutting machine here in Ab. I have personally seen how they do things.  There is no doubt in my mind that they already know exactly what they want and have likely had the rfq written for them by the preffered vendor.  That is precisely what happened in my case.!

Quite handy, if you want to make sure you get the sale.!  One can skew the rfq such that only one vendor is capable of supplying.

Be interesting to see who gets it.

rgds,

stk