The invention relates to control of a wind turbine comprising a plurality of multi-axial accelerometers mounted at different positions in the nacelle and/or in a top portion of the tower. The position and orientation of each accelerometer as mounted is obtained, accelerations in at least two different directions by each accelerometer are measured during operation of the wind turbine. From a number of predetermined mode shapes for the movement of the wind turbine is then determined an absolute position of at least one of the accelerometers during operation of the wind turbine based on the measured accelerations, the mount position and orientation of each accelerometer and the pre-determined mode shapes. Hereby a more precise absolute position during operation is obtained which can be used in the controlling of the turbine.

Disclosed is a method of adaptively adjusting lift and drag on an airfoil-shaped sail. The method includes: (1) mounting at least one airfoil-shaped sail body having an airfoil-shaped cross section; (2) defining a Y-shaped air jet channel in the airfoil-shaped sail body; (3) arranging a flow regulating gate in the Y-shaped air jet channel; (4) adjusting the flow regulating gate to automatically adjust the gate opening extent and the cross section opening or closing extent in response to an oncoming flow with a varying direction and speed, to regulate the airflow within the air jet channel and accordingly change the angle of attack, so that the lift and drag on the sail body can be automatically adjusted as the wind speed changes. Further disclosed are an airfoil-shaped sail implementing the above method as well as a vertical-axis wind turbine employing the airfoil-shaped sail.

A vertical axis wind turbine includes two or more cells arranged one above the other along a vertical machine axis, in which each of the cells includes a plurality of vertical blades which are arranged within the cell distributed on a concentric circle about the machine axis and which are connected so as to be able to move together on this circle and which are rotationally fixed with a main shaft, and in which the blades in the cell are each individually mounted so as to be able to rotate about a vertical axis of rotation which in particular runs internally through them. Assigned to each of the blades are means by which the blade is made to adopt, a rotational position, about its axis of rotation, which is predetermined and can be changed at any time.

The invention relates to a control system for a wind turbine. The wind turbine comprises a power generator configured to generate power dependent on a power reference and a pitch system configured to adjust the pitch of a blade of the wind turbine dependent on a pitch request. The control system comprises a controller configured to determine the pitch request dependent on an adjustable gain. A gain scheduler comprised by the control system is configured to set the adjustable gain to an increased gain value if a rate of change of the power reference, e.g. an external power reference, exceeds a threshold.

The invention relates to wind turbines with variable rotor blades whose pitch angle can be adjusted, wherein an adjustment unit for adjusting the pitch angle of a wind turbine rotor blade with a pivot bearing comprising at least two coaxial bearing rings that are rotatable against each other, at least one adjustment actuator for rotating the two bearing rings against each other, and a supply unit for supplying the adjustment actuator with energy, wherein the at least one adjustment actuator and the supply unit are disposed on opposite sides on a plate-shaped adjustment drive carrier part which is directly or indirectly rotatably connected with one of the bearing rings and comprises a rotatable support bearing for the rotatable support of the adjustment actuator on the carrier part. The supply unit is connected with the adjustment actuator by at least one pressurized-media channel passing through the support bearing.

The present invention relates to wind turbines with variable rotor blades whose pitch angles are adjustable. An adjustment unit is provided for adjusting the pitch angle of the rotor blades with a pivot bearing comprising at least two coaxial bearing rings that are rotatable against each other, at least one adjustment actuator for rotating the two bearing rings, and a supply unit for supplying the adjustment actuator with energy, whereby the adjustment actuator and the supply unit are disposed on opposite sides on a plate-shaped adjustment drive carrier part which is rotatably connected with one of the bearing rings and comprises a rotatable support bearing for the support of the adjustment actuator. A least one part of the supply unit is rotatably mounted on the carrier part such that the supply unit or its rotatably mounted part and the adjustment actuator are jointly rotatably mounted and/or swivel-mounted on the carrier part.

An generator/motor that initially uses external power to spin a partially submerged low drag fluid distributor rotor that uses centrifugal force to cause fluid to flow from the center of rotation, through a plurality of Euler curved penstocks, allowing the fluid to flow in a true radial direction through a high g artificial gravity field, which dramatically increases the fluid's kinetic energy and released available power (Pa), before it is guided out tangentially from the distributor via a plurality of nozzles symmetrically located at a small height just above the reservoir surface (near zero lift). As the frequency of the rotor is increased linearly the fuel artificial gravity increases exponentially, as does the fluid dynamic available power (Pa). Turbine runners on the rotor assembly capture the available power (Pa), and a positive feedback mechanical transmission couples the captured rotational power to the I/O shaft in its initialized direction thus replacing the external power with internal fluid dynamic derived mechanical power to sustain rotator rotation and drive the shaft of an electric generator.

The apparatus includes a wind turbine system for the collection of wind energy and the conversion thereof through staged-compression into highly compressed gas. The highly compressed gas is routed to a central tank, and then expanded into a plurality of concentric ring tanks, each storing gas at successively lower pressures. The cooling resulting from this expansion is utilized to cool hot compressed gas from an intermediate line of gas compressors, increasing the efficiency of the following compressors. This absorption of heat also improves the efficiency of the gas turbines driving electrical generators. The gas compressor in each wind turbine is located near ground level, and driven by a vertical shaft passing through the wind turbine support tower. One embodiment has conventional radially extending blades, and another embodiment has ducted blades to withstand higher winds. Both ground mounted and deep water adaptions for the wind turbines are disclosed.

The present invention relates to a control system for thrust-limiting of wind turbines, which wind turbine comprises at least one tower, which tower carries at least one nacelle which nacelle comprises a rotating shaft, which shaft is rotated by one or more blades, which blades at pitch regulated by a pitch control system. It is the object of the present invention to reduce mechanical load and stress of a wind turbine. A further object is to reduce the maximal load on tower of a wind turbine. The thrust-limiting control system performs control of the pitch angle, which thrust-limiting control system performs regulation of the pitch angle based on at least a first input from a wind estimator and a second input from a turbulence estimator. By thrust-limiting control, reduction in the maximum mechanical load on a tower, or maybe also a nacelle, can be achieved by a relatively high percentage of the load in a way where it has only very limited influence on the power production of the wind turbine.

A vertical axis wind turbine includes two or more cells arranged one above the other along a vertical machine axis, in which each of the cells includes a plurality of vertical blades which are arranged within the cell distributed on a concentric circle about the machine axis and which are connected so as to be able to move together on this circle and which are rotationally fixed with a main shaft, and in which the blades in the cell are each individually mounted so as to be able to rotate about a vertical axis of rotation which in particular runs internally through them. Assigned to each of the blades are means by which the blade is made to adopt, a rotational position, about its axis of rotation, which is predetermined and can be changed at any time.