Produktivity increase by management of ice-aggregation on rotor-blades of wind turbines
Project Funding:
FFG
Project Coordination:
LKR (Austria)
Project Partners:
AAC, WEB Windenergie AG, STERNWIND Errichtungs- und Betriebs-GmbH, Villinger GmbH, Österreichisches Forschungs- und Prüfzentrum Arsenal Ges.m.b.H, AIT Austrian Institute of Technology
Duration:
30 months
The icing-up of rotor blades is a real challenge for wind power plants. In icy conditions, a windmill has to be shut down for safety reasons, sometimes leading to extended production downtimes, as there is currently no other option than to wait for fair weather and natural deicing.
During this down time, the energy has to be produced in conventional caloric power plants, causing unwanted CO2 emissions. This project aims to reduce production downtimes using four distinct anti-icing and de-icing methods, namely: passive solar heating, ice-phobic coatings, electric heating paints and operational tuning to promote sublimation. All methods were tested on real production units, which was a unique opportunity for the consortium.
Wind turbine with AAC anti-ice coating