Vestas has launched a new anti-icing solution for wind turbines that aims to ensure a minimum of 90% production retention in cold climates.
The Vestas anti-icing system uses electro-thermal heating elements embedded in the laminate directly below the blade’s surface.
The heating elements are monitored by the control system, which includes different operational modes to create the optimal heating level.
Vestas says this results in fast and targeted anti-icing action tailored to the specific icing situation, and the system can operate both in rotation and standstill, “thereby being applicable from low to high ice severity”.
Vestas estimates a potential market size for the anti-icing tool of up to 14.6GW between 2018 and 2026, mainly in Sweden, Finland, Norway and Canada.
Vestas Product Management senior manager Brian Daugbjerg Nielsen said: “The Vestas anti-icing system significantly increases the potential for wind production in many cold climate locations where the risk of icing has constrained the otherwise excellent wind resources.”
The company has also developed an assessment tool that uses metrological models and algorithms to determine ice build-up on a turbine.
Image: Vestas
Vestas breaks the ice
By EBS