Wind Energy Production in Cold Climate Conditions
Wind energy is leading the expansion of renewable sources around the world and when it goes to the extreme poles of the earth, where the sun doesn’t shine the entire year, it might be the most important natural resource.
The report “IEA Wind Task 19 — State-of-the-Art of Wind Energy in Cold Climates” estimates a potential of 4.7 GW wind power for Switzerland, Germany and Austria, 11.4 GW for Finland, Sweden and Norway and incredible 55 GW for Canada (no data for US).
Exploiting any energy resource in extreme cold weather is not an easy task. When it comes to wind turbines, the low temperature causes a phenomena called ‘icing’. This event is ice accumulation on the surface of the material which is exposed to the wind and it has many consequences such as lower energy production, increase of loads on the machine, throw of ice, decrease of the life-time of the wind turbine.
One problem noticed in Finland is that low temperature has lowered turbine availability annually between 0.2 - 2.8% from 1997 to 2010 which means 245 hours of shutdown in average per year and the northern region is the most affected by this condition. This issue has a huge economical impact for the investors and it increases the risks for the maintenance workers.
Check out this publication: Icing on Wind Turbine’s Blades
The icing event in wind turbines started to be investigated in the last 20 years and in this decade there was a “boom” of studies in the Technical University of Denmark, VTT Technical Research Center of Finland, Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University (Russia), Pennsylvania State University (US) and so on.
In order to solve the problems caused by the extreme conditions faced by wind turbines in the arctic region, Lappeenranta University of Technology (LUT University), Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University (Polytech) and National Research Center “Kurchatov Institute” (Prometey), with the support of the European Union, started a multidisciplinary cross-border cooperation to develop a unique technology to operate specifically in the Arctic region.
Energy-efficient systems based on renewable energy for Arctic conditions — EFREA Project is developing a wind turbine for the arctic, with new structural technologies and control systems that will optimize the operation, decrease maintenance and increase equipment lifetime and safety of the electricity generation.
