Canadian outfit Clir Renewables has developed a software to help mitigate lost energy production caused by both static and dynamic yaw misalignment at wind farms.
The technology aims to address the issue of yaw lag by detecting physical misalignment and poorly-specified parameters that determine when the turbines respond to wind direction changes.
It enables early detection of yaw alignment issues, quantifies the financial impact and provides recommendations on how to fix directly or address the issue, the company said.
Clir Renewables chief executive Gareth Brown said: “To maximise production, wind farms owners need the ability to proactively monitor and understand the lost energy impact of inappropriate control parameters and yaw faults in their wind turbines.”
Tools currently available on the market make it “difficult to understand if the turbines know where the wind is coming from, if they are tracking it effectively, and don’t provide recommendations for how to combat misalignment with service providers”, he said.
Brown added: “We’ve seen many of our clients ignoring the issues as they didn’t have the tools to monitor or understand them, and it’s costing them significant amounts of money.”
Image: Clir Renewables
Clir view on yaw alignment
By EBS