WINDHEAT · Opening New Markets for SMEs: Intelligent Ice Sensing and De-icing System to Improve Wind Turbine Efficiency in Cold Climates

Technical limitations constrain the use of wind turbines (WT) in extreme (cold) climates. These arise in Northen (Scandinavia, Scotland) as well as high altitude (Switzerland, south Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Austria) regions in the EU. The main challenge is ice formation on the WT blades which significantly reduces their performance and can ultimately cause shutdown. Power losses related to icing of 14-20% in cold climates are common. Ice formation causes significant issues with the safety, the efficiency, the lifetime and the economic viability of wind turbine technology. As a result in harsh climates WT are not used as widely as they could be, even though cold climates often offer the most potential in terms of available wind.The overall objective is to develop and demonstrate knowledge and technology for the large scale deployment of wind turbine farms in regions with extreme climates with levels of reliability and at a cost of energy generation currently not possible.Currently icing is addressed with heating removal systems that are costly (use high power) and are untargeted (have limited or no accuracy capability).This project will address both issues by developing a state of the art understanding of ice formation on wind turbine blades which will lead to the development of an accurate ice detection system (based on a novel multiwavelength interdigital frequency wavenumber dielectrometry sensor) and a low power localized heating system (based on graphite coatings). Both innovations will be integrated into a single system which will be validated in real conditions.