The prognostic tool, IceBlade, can predict ice formation on wind turbine wings, benefiting operators and wind turbine owners in cold regions.
It may look pretty when the snow falls, frost sets in and roads, houses and trees are covered in a thick silent blanket, concealing all that is grey and unappealing. The drawback to such beautiful wintry Nordic scenes—in the context of wind turbines and wind power—is that the ice-covered turbine wings at best generate less power and at worst have to be switched off so that the ice does not become too thick and completely destroy the wing. A new predictive tool developed by DTU Wind Energy will make it easier to predict the level of ice formation.
“The data provided by our new predictive tool enables us to make extremely accurate predictions about how much power the wind turbine system can expect to generate,” explains PhD student Neil Davis, who has worked on the IceBlade tool for the past two and a half years.
“It’s important that utility companies know this when it comes to pricing and buying in outside power. Providing wrong estimates may also result in hefty fines.”
The calculations show that a wind turbine can lose up to 20 per cent of its annual production output through ice formation—making it highly relevant for operators to have a tool that can accurately predict where, when and how much ice will form on the wings and thus how much power they can expect to supply from day to day.
Ice formation is typically a phenomenon seen on onshore wind turbines in the Nordic countries, where exposed areas such as mountainous regions, are particularly susceptible to icing. There is no risk of ice formation at sea, however, as it is simply too warm.
Now in beta version
Several ice formation models developed by the aviation industry are currently available, but they tend to be expensive and calculation-intensive. The aim, therefore, was to develop a cheaper numerical model that can ensure reasonable simulation times.
IceBlade is now available in a beta version and is being tested by Vestas, which is looking into how the tool can be integrated into the models they offer their customers.
“Currently, the beta version only covers the northern regions of Sweden, Norway and Finland, but the aim is to expand it to all relevant areas where information can be sourced from a weather prediction model—a so-called meso scale model that predicts the weather based on parameters such as wind, temperatures and the amount of cloud water,” explains Neil Davis.
Special Nordic barriers for spread of wind energy
The development of IceBlade is part of the major collaborative Icewind project involving Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Iceland and the wind turbine industry (including Danish Vestas) to explore four special areas limiting the spread of wind energy in cold regions.
“The first area is ice formation of onshore wind farms, including short- and long-term ice prognoses. The second is a wind atlas for Iceland, which is virtually without wind power. The third is offshore wind and wave prognoses for planning and maintenance. The fourth goes by the technical name of ‘system effects’, which simply means the mechanisms that apply when trading electrical energy inside and outside national borders in Scandinavia’s ‘Nord Pool Spot’ electricity market,” explains Senior Officer at DTU Wind Energy, Niels Erik Clausen, one of the project initiators.