US 8,183,707 B2 · Method of controlling a wind energy system and wind speed sensor free wind energy system

Abstract

A method for controlling a wind energy system is provided wherein the method comprises determining the effective wind speed taking into account the load on the rotor blades of said wind energy system exerted by the wind is provided. A computer-readable medium is provided that provides instructions which when executed by a computing platform cause the computing platform to perform operations wherein the operations include the method according to embodiments described herein. Further, a wind energy system having a calculation unit adapted for calculating the effective wind speed by taking into account the load on the rotor blades of said wind energy system exerted by the wind is provided. Further, a wind speed sensor free wind energy system having a generator for generating electric energy and a controller for shutting down and/or starting the electric energy generation in dependence of the wind speed is provided.

Claims16

Dependent claims

A method for controlling a wind energy system, the wind energy system comprising a rotor, said method comprising:

determining an effective wind speed incident on the rotor, taking into account load on the rotor exerted by wind;
and
determining an operational condition of the wind energy system based on the effective wind speed,
wherein the effective wind speed is calculated from a rotational speed of the rotor, a pitch angle of a rotor blade of the rotor and at least one of a generated power of the wind energy system and a torque of the rotor, for wind speeds in a range between a cut-in wind speed for the wind energy system and a cut-out wind speed for the wind energy system.

1 more element

A wind energy system comprising:

a rotor with rotor blades;
a controller;
a calculation unit in communication with the controller and configured to calculate an effective wind speed incident on the rotor by taking into account load on the rotor exerted by wind,
wherein the controller determines an operational condition of the wind energy system based on the effective wind speed,
a pitch drive control for controlling the pitch angle of the rotor blades;
and
a rotational speed sensor for measuring the rotational speed of the rotor,
wherein said calculation unit is in communication with said pitch drive control and said rotational speed sensor, and
wherein the effective wind speed is calculated from the rotational speed of the rotor and the pitch angle of the rotor blades for wind speeds in a range between a start-up wind speed for a yaw system of the wind energy system and a cut-in wind speed for the wind energy system, and for wind speeds in a range above a cut-out wind speed for the wind energy system.

6 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Method of controlling a wind energy system and wind speed sensor free wind energy system

Life of this patent

Method of controlling a wind energy system and wind speed sensor free wind energy system

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims16