What Happens When Wind Farms Get Old?
A new study in the journal Wind Energy takes a close look at this problem by studying two aging wind farms in North Africa that have been running for more than 20 years.
View Details
Menu
Menu
Ongoing technology changes within the U.S. wind industry are helping to slow the impacts of aging on wind power plants, according to a study by researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and published in the journal Joule. The study provides the first comprehensive evaluation of its kind for the United States.
Across the world, ageing wind turbines are nearing the end of their lifespan, which begs the question of what happens to their components after they are decommissioned. Wind turbines have a lifespan of between 20 and 30 years. The world's first windfarm was erected in New Hampshire, US, in 1980 and was 20 turbines strong.
The study revealed that the oldest U.S. wind power plants maintained 87% of peak performance after 17 years, and newer plants showed almost no decline over the first 10 years (Figure 1).
Wind turbines are not always decommissioned immediately after their working life. Depending on their condition and functionality, they are sometimes refurbished or allowed to continue operating (albeit less efficiently) until they become economically unfeasible. Decommissioning a wind turbine is not a straightforward process.
A new study in the journal Wind Energy takes a close look at this problem by studying two aging wind farms in North Africa that have been running for more than 20 years.
View Details
In response, the primary contribution of this study is to carry out a reliability analysis and economic asset risk assessment, for the first time, based on maintenance records of two aging wind
View Details
Across the world, ageing wind turbines are nearing the end of their lifespan, which begs the question of what happens to their components after they are decommissioned.
View Details
Onshore wind power providers may be celebrating the easing of planning rules, but understanding and managing the risks associated with wind turbines is essential as the sector grows.
View Details
Through the accident analysis, a series of rectification measures are obtained, which will play a reference role for the subsequent maintenance and operation of wind turbines.
View Details
The thesis offers an in-depth investigation of wind turbines, with particular emphasis on the ramifications of wind turbine aging.
View Details
First comprehensive study of the U.S. wind fleet shows that the performance of newer plants declines less with age than older plants.
View Details
The new energy technology represented by wind power has been rapidly developed, and the installed capacity has grown rapidly. At the same time, it has also accompanied the outstanding failure of unit
View Details
This study developed a method to quantify the Annual Degradation Rate (ADR) caused by turbine aging and applied it to operational wind farms to estimate the power curve and the
View Details
Abstract Wind power is one of the most important sources of renewable energy. A large part of the wind energy cost is due to the cost of maintaining the wind power equipment. To further reduce the
View DetailsPDF version includes complete article with source references. Suitable for printing and offline reading.