A adjustment unit for an azimuth adjustment and/or for a pitch adjustment of a wind turbine, to an adjustment apparatus, to a pitch adjustment apparatus, to an azimuth adjustment apparatus, to a wind turbine, and to methods for the rotor blade adjustment and wind direction tracking, and to the use of an adjustment unit and/or adjustment apparatus. The adjustment unit for an azimuth adjustment and/or for a pitch adjustment of a wind turbine comprises a drive unit which can be arranged on a first annular flange and has an eccentric shaft, a first engagement element which can be arranged on a circumference of a second annular flange which is arranged such that it can be rotated with respect to the first annular flange, a multiplicity of concavely and convexly configured first cam sections being arranged on a circumferential face of the first engagement element, and a second engagement element, with concave and convex second cam sections which are arranged on a circumferential face and correspond to the first cam sections.

A system and method are provided for applying a pitch motor braking torque to a rotor blade. Accordingly, of the pitch control system from a 1.sup.st operational mode to an emergency operational mode is initiated. The pitch motor of the pitch control system having an absence of supply current during the transition. A short-circuit is established across the Armature of the pitch motor so as to establish a current flow. The current is generated by the pitch motor in response to rotation of the rotor blade about the pitch axis when the pitch motor has the absence of supply current. In response to the current flow being generated, generating a braking torque in a single direction with the pitch motor so as to allow the rotor blade to move freely to a lesser loaded orientation relative to an original orientation to protect the wind turbine from damage.

A pitch energy module comprising one or more ultracapacitors storing electrical energy for a wind turbine emergency pitch energy event. The pitch energy module replaces at least one battery within a battery housing of a wind turbine and interfaces with the existing battery wiring harness to communicate with a control system of the wind turbine. The pitch energy module is installed without further modification to the battery housing or the battery wiring harness.

A method for a wind turbine in an emergency mode. In that case a change in the wind direction and/or a force exerted on the wind turbine is detected and at least one of the rotor blades is adjusted in dependence on the change while maintaining the yaw angle of the yaw setting. A control means for a wind turbine and a wind turbine.

A floating electrical power generator having a three-dimensional (3D) flow passageway configured for increasing the water flow on the paddle wheel to increase the power output.

In a vertical rotor apparatus that rotates in response to a moving fluid, a shaft defines an axis of rotor rotation. Rotor blades are longitudinally aligned in parallel with the shaft and each rotor blade defines an axis of blade rotation. A sensor generates a signal when any of the rotor blades are within rotor azimuthal angles of blade stall regions. A controller generates blade pitch information for the blade stall regions and an actuator, which is mechanically coupled to each of the rotor blades, alters blade pitch about the axis of blade rotation in accordance with the blade pitch information.

A method for controlling a wind turbine with rotor blades with an adjustable blade angle, comprising: operating the wind turbine in a part-load operation for wind speeds up to a rated wind speed, operating the wind turbine in a full-load operation for wind speeds above the rated wind speed, with the blade angle being increased in full-load operation with increasing wind speed, setting a limit angle as a minimum value of the blade angle, and controlling the wind turbine in such a way that the limit angle is undershot by at most a predetermined difference angle.

The invention relates to a wind power installation comprising a rotor (6) which can be turned with wind power, and has a rotor hub (10) and at least one rotor blade (11) rotatably mounted thereon, a higher-level operation control device (15) and a blade angle adjustment system (16) communicatively connected to same and having components that can be used for the emergency deactivation of the wind power installation, by means of which system the rotor blade (11) can be rotated relative to the rotor hub (10) and can be thereby positioned in different blade angle positions, wherein control commands (54) for the positioning of the rotor blade can be output to the blade angle adjustment system (16) by the operation control device (15), and the blade angle adjustment system (16) follows the control commands (54) in a normal operation of the wind power installation and correspondingly positions the rotor blade (11), and wherein the blade angle adjustment system (16) also has a monitoring unit (50) that can run in parallel to the normal operation, by means of which the functionality of the or a portion of the components can be checked.

The present invention relates to control of a wind turbine, and in particular it relates to a distributed control system including a blade controller for each blade of the wind turbine. The electrical connection between each blade controller and the power supply of the blade controller is arranged to be functionally isolated from the electrical connection of each other blade controller and the power supply of the respective blade controllers.

A method for operating a wind turbine, and the wind turbine has an aerodynamic rotor with a rotor hub and with rotor blades of which the blade angle can be adjusted, and the aerodynamic rotor can be adjusted in respect of its azimuth direction, and the method comprises the steps of detecting a storm situation in which the prevailing wind is so strong that the wind turbine is moved to a coasting mode for self-protection purposes, orienting the rotor in respect of its azimuth position into a low-loading orientation in relation to the wind, in which orientation the wind turbine is subjected to as little loading as possible by the wind from a main wind direction, detecting at least one loading (L.sub.M) which is caused by a gust of wind and acts on the rotor, and adjusting at least one of the rotor blades in respect of its blade angle such that the at least one rotor blade is subjected to as little loading as possible by the causative gust of wind.