Lightning protection system for wind turbines
AssigneeVestas Wind Systems A/S
InventorsSrikanth Narasimalu, Yoshiki Haraguchi, Erwin Merijn Wouterson
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Abstract
A system, method and software for protecting wind turbines from lightning strikes, as well as a wind turbine comprising the system for lightning protection, wherein at least one lightning strike protection element of said LSP system is ionized prior to a lightning strike, thus reducing the chance of damaging unprotected part(s) of the blade(s) of the wind turbine.
Claims13
A system for protecting wind turbines from lightning strikes, comprising at least one lightning strike protection element on at least one wind turbine blade, means for providing information that a risk of lightning strike has been determined, and ionization means for ionizing said at least one lightning strike protection element of said at least one blade when the information has been provided and prior to a lightning strike hit.
A method for protecting wind turbines from lightning strikes, comprising the steps of:
- providing information that a risk of lightning strike has been determined,
- ionizing, with the help of ionization means, at least one lightning strike protection element on at least one wind turbine blade when the information has been provided and prior to a lightning strike hit, and
- shutting down the ionization of said at least one lightning strike protection element once or right after the lightning strike has been lead to the wind turbine tower or discharged to the earth.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.