Wind power plant with a particle sensor

Abstract

Wind power installations using more modern technology have long been known. Such wind power installations have rotors comprising at least one or more rotor blades. The rotors and accordingly the rotor blades carried thereby of wind power installations are subjected to a particular degree to the ambient environmental influences such as for example rain, snow, hail or also insects. In particular the leading edges of the rotor blades are heavily loaded in that respect. In that situation it can happen that the rotor blades and in particular the leading edges thereof, after some time, suffer from (mechanical) damage, for which cost-intensive repair is necessary, especially as a crane is frequently required for that purpose and the entire wind power installation is also stopped for a prolonged period due to the repair and under some circumstances even individual rotor blades have to be transported away to the repair location. The object of the present invention is to reduce the erosion damage at the rotor blades and to avoid the above-mentioned disadvantages. A method of operating a wind power installation having at least one sensor for detecting the number and/or the speed and/or the impulse of particles which impinge on the sensor, with a data processing and control device for processing the measurement data detected by the sensor, wherein the rotary speed of the rotor of the wind power installation is reduced (by means of the data processing/control device) and/or the wind power installation is stopped if a particle measurement value measured by the sensor is exceeded.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.