Provided is a wind turbine including: a tower, a nacelle mounted on the tower, an electrical generator housed in the nacelle, a wind rotor rotatably coupled to the nacelle for rotating about a rotational axis and having at least one rotatable blade, two rotating shafts for connecting the wind rotor to the electrical generator, a shaft connector for rigidly connecting the two rotating shafts. The shaft connector includes: a hollow body, at least an inner flange protruding from the hollow body towards an axis of rotation of the shaft connector, the inner flange being connectable to one of the two rotating shafts, at least one hole provided on the hollow body for accessing the inner flange.

A gearbox repair assembly is disclosed herein. The gearbox repair assembly includes a sleeve having an inner diameter configured to receive a bearing assembly and an outer diameter configured to fit within a bore of a gearbox housing. The gearbox housing can be part of a gearbox of a wind turbine. The gearbox repair assembly further includes a retaining plate configured to be attached to the gearbox housing for preventing an outer race of the bearing assembly from rotating in the bore relative to the gearbox housing. Also provided are methods to repair such a gearbox. The gearbox repair assembly and related methods reduce the time and cost needed to repair the gearboxes.

A method of preparing a wind turbine blade, comprising: removing at least a portion of a layer of material covering a region of a metallic part of the wind turbine blade from the wind turbine blade, applying a metal salt to the metallic part, the metal salt being arranged to oxidise a metal of the metallic part, such that the metal salt and the metal of the metallic part react and a new compound is formed on the metallic part.

The repair system for performing at least one repair task in at least one wind turbine, in particular the nacelle, includes:

a controllable robotic repair device installed in the wind turbine, in particular the nacelle,

an operating device for remotely operating the robotic repair device, which comprises a control device and virtual reality equipment providing a virtual reality environment of the interior of the wind turbine, in particular the nacelle, for at least one human service user provided remote to the wind turbine,

wherein the control device of the operating device is adapted to remotely control the robotic repair device according to user input commands provided via the virtual reality equipment.

A method for in-place machining of a collector ring attached to a turbine shaft of a hydroelectric generator includes: attaching a support member to stationary portions of the hydroelectric generator, the support member being configured to support a machine tool at an angle parallel to an inclination angle of an axis of rotation of the turbine shaft; attaching an adjustable positioning device to the support member; attaching the machine tool to the adjustable positioning device, the machine tool being configured to perform a machining operation on the collector ring; controlling a rotational speed of the turbine shaft to a specified rotational speed by controlling a flow of water through the turbine; adjusting the adjustable positioning device to adjust a position of the machine tool with respect to the collector ring; and performing the machining operation on the collector ring at the specified rotational speed of the turbine shaft.

A method for performing uptower maintenance of a wind turbine in order to replace the main bearing on the turbine shaft is disclosed. Embodiments of this method to perform maintenance may include installing a rotor lock to resist rotation of the main shaft during maintenance, providing a lifting device in order to elevate the main shaft, removing the main bearing from its main bearing housing, and installing a replacement split main bearing. A crane may also be installed uptower to assist in the maintenance.

An electric heating module structure, an installation method, a forming method, and a wind turbine are provided. The electric heating module structure is configured for melting ice on a blade, and includes an electric heating module, a positive conductive wire and a negative conductive wire. The positive conductive wire and the negative conductive wire are integrally formed with the electric heating module, to supply power to the electric heating module. The integrally formed electric heating module, the positive conductive wire and the negative conductive wire are laid in an outer layer of the blade.

A method of retrofitting a wind turbine (10) having a wind turbine tower (12) and a first energy generating unit (14) includes rotating at least a portion of the wind turbine tower (12). The wind turbine tower (12) is secured to a foundation (16) and has a first position on the foundation (16). The method includes rotating at least a portion of the wind turbine tower (12) from the first position to a second position. In the second position, the portion experiences less stress when the wind turbine (10) is operated in the same prevailing wind. The wind turbine tower (12) may have at least two sections (12a, 12b, 12c) and wherein rotating includes rotating one section relative to another section. One section may be secured to a foundation (16). In that case, rotating may or may not include rotating the section secured to the foundation (16). Rotating the tower may occur after the first energy generating unit (14) is removed from the tower and may include rotating the wind turbine tower by an angle from 90°±15° relative to the first position.

A protective covering can protect a surface of a composite article from lightning strikes, wherein the surface includes at least one grounding connection. The covering includes a conductive sheet formed from electrically conductive material configured to be affixed to the composite article over a portion of the surface adjacent the grounding connection; and a perforated overlaminate sheet comprising a dielectric material configured to be affixed to the composite article over the conductive sheet. The perforated overlaminate sheet distributes electrical current of the lighting strikes over an area of the protective covering.

Systems and methods for building predictive and prescriptive analytics of wind turbines generate a historical operational dataset by loading historical operational SCADA data of one or more wind turbines. Each sensor measurement is associated with an engineering tag and at least one component of a wind turbine. The system creates one or more performance indicators corresponding to one or more sensor measurements, and applies at least one data clustering algorithm onto the dataset to identify and label normal operation data clusters. The system builds a normal operation model using normal operational data clusters with Efficiency of Wind-To-Power (EWTP) and defines a statistical confidence range around the normal operation model as criterion for monitoring wind turbine performance. As real-time SCADA data is received by the system, the system can detect an anomalous event, and issue an alert notification and prescriptive early-action recommendations to a user, such as a turbine operator, technician or manager.