Authors: Karoline Pelka and Dr.-Ing. Katharina Fischer Power converters are among the most frequently failing components of wind turbines. The causes remained unexplained for many years. Seasonal failure patterns point to environmental influences and shift the focus to the climatic…

Authors: Karoline Pelka, Vincent Wilms, Dr. Martin Dörenkämper Digitalization is on everyone’s lips. How can digitalization in the wind industry contribute to the improved competitive ability of renewable energies? One answer is the safe and uncomplicated sharing of wind turbine…

Authors: Dr.-Ing. Katharina Fischer, Karoline Pelka Wind turbines generate electricity – and a whole lot of data. The amount of data is growing continuously as the number of operating years increases, but also as turbines are equipped with more and…

Author: Dipl.-Ing. Norbert EichThe Fraunhofer IWES has commissioned a development environment to test mechanical application for research purposes. Improved control concepts and mechanical issues can thus be tested more quickly more cost-effectively and in parallel with productive operation. With this,…

Part 2: Rapid testing of blade bearings – from the desk to the test bench The first milestones on our journey to a blade bearing test are described in part 1. In mid-2013, we submitted a project outline with the…

All wind turbine and wind farm operators and owners know what questions to expect at the end of each quarter or the year: Is the energy yield satisfactory? What does the wind farm’s yield to date mean for the future?…

An ambitious measuring campaign has been under way at the alpha ventus offshore wind farm ever since it was installed back in 2010. The measurement data from the wind turbines, the substation, and the marine environment are available to scientists…

Author: M.Sc. Rouven Brune The wind resource and soil conditions in particular are often investigated when planning the exact sites of individual wind turbines within a planned offshore wind farm. The Fraunhofer IWES employs acoustic methods to characterize the subsurface,…

Part 1: Rapid testing of blade bearings – but how? Back in 2013, the Fraunhofer IWES was still only a fairly small Fraunhofer institute and many of the test benches which would later shape the image of the institute were…

Predicting the fatigue lifetime of rotor blade bearings is a particularly difficult task as the use of existing calculation methods requires a comprehensive understanding of the systems and the methods are scarcely validated for the unique blade bearings with their extraordinary load situations.