A method for controlling heating of rotor blades of an aerodynamic rotor of a wind turbine, wherein, the heating of the rotor blades is initiated, if icing of the rotor blades is expected, wherein according to an icing criteria, if icing is expected is evaluated depending on a determined ambient temperature, a determined relative humidity, and a determined wind speed, each defining a determined weather parameter, and further according to the icing criteria, if icing is expected is evaluated depending on a temporal change of at least one of these weather parameters and/or of at least one other weather parameter.

An apparatus and method is disclosed for over-rating a wind turbine using turbulence prediction. Weather forecast information is used to determine whether there is a risk of turbulent conditions occurring at the site of the wind turbine. The wind turbine is over-rated if turbulent conditions are not predicted, and conversely over-rating is cancelled or reduced if turbulent conditions are expected. This allows an increase in the annual energy production of the wind turbine to be realised. The weather forecast information may be combined with real time measurements of operating conditions to supplement the predictions.

Generating a control schedule for a wind turbine, the control schedule indicating how the turbine maximum power level varies over time. Generating the control schedule includes determining a value indicative of the current remaining fatigue lifetime of the turbine, or one or more turbine components, based on measured wind turbine site and/or operating data; applying an optimisation function that varies an initial control schedule to determine an optimised control schedule by varying the trade off between energy capture and fatigue life consumed by the turbine or the one or more turbine components until an optimised control schedule is determined.

A method for optimizing the operation of a wind turbine having a rotor with at least one rotor blade, a tower, and a wind turbine controller, comprises determining a first load status of the wind turbine based on metereological data acquired by sensors, including a turbulence intensity; determining a second load status of the wind turbine based on mechanical loads on at least one wind turbine component; and increasing a load of the wind turbine, if the determined first and second load status of the turbine are within selectable load limits. A wind turbine implementing the method is also disclosed.

A rotor for a wind, to a wind turbine and to a method for increasing the yield of a rotor of a wind turbine. In particular, a rotor for a wind turbine, comprising at least one rotor blade, having a rotor blade trailing edge and rotor blade leading edge extending between the rotor blade root and the rotor blade tip over a rotor blade length, a profile depth established between the rotor blade leading edge and the rotor blade trailing edge, and an adjustable pitch angle, wherein the rotor blade has at least one profile element which is arranged on the rotor blade trailing edge or in the region adjacent to the rotor blade trailing edge for increasing the profile depth by an enlargement value, characterized by a control unit for determining a pitch angle to be set, which is configured to determine the pitch angle to be set depending on the enlargement value.

An operation control system for a wind farm having wind turbines includes: a remaining-lifetime estimation unit for estimating remaining lifetime of a component of each wind turbine; a sales-income estimation unit for estimating, for each wind turbine, an income from sales of electric power under a plurality of output control conditions; a maintenance-cost estimation unit for estimating, for each wind turbine, maintenance cost based on the remaining lifetime of the component under each of the plurality of power limit conditions; a power-limit-condition selection unit for selecting, for each wind turbine, a power limit condition that maximizes income obtained from the wind farm, based on the income from sales of electric power and the maintenance cost estimated for each wind turbine under each of the power limit conditions; and an operation command unit for sending an operation command to each wind turbine based on the selected power limit condition.

A control method and a control apparatus of a wind power generator set are provided, in which a wind speed at a location of the wind power generator set is acquired, turbulence intensity is calculated according to the wind speed, and a wind speed distribution range corresponding to the turbulence intensity is determined; a thrust variation amplitude of the thrust in the wind speed distribution range is determined based on a relationship among the thrust suffered by a wind wheel of the wind power generator set, a thrust coefficient and the wind speed; and a maximum rotating speed and a maximum torque of the wind wheel in the wind speed distribution range are adjusted according to the thrust variation amplitude. The maximum rotating speed and the maximum torque makes a fatigue load of the wind power generator set in the wind speed distribution range meet a preset standard.

A shutdown controller for a wind turbine comprises, to improve the estimation of a state of the wind turbine, at least two sensors being adapted to provide sensor data significant for different mechanical states in the wind turbine. The controller can provide an estimated state of the wind turbine based on the sensor data from the at least two sensors and compare the state of the wind turbine with a predefined detection limit to provide a shutdown signal if the estimated state is outside the detection limit.

Disclosed is a method for analyzing wind turbine blade coating fatigue due to rain erosion. According to the method, a stochastic rain field model is established, and the coating fatigue life of the wind turbine blades is calculated based on a crack propagation theory. The present patent innovatively develops a stochastic rain field model considering the shape, size, impact angle, and impact speed of raindrops to simulate the raindrop impact process, analyzes the impact stress of raindrops on the blade coating by using a smooth particle hydrodynamics method and a finite element analysis method, calculates the impact stress of all raindrops in the random rainfall process by using a stress interpolation method, and carries out fatigue analysis for the blade coating based on the impact stress.

A method for operating a wind turbine includes determining one or more loading and travel metrics or functions thereof for one or more components of the wind turbine during operation of the wind turbine. The method also includes generating, at least in part, at least one distribution of cumulative loading data for the one or more components using the one or more loading and travel metrics during operation of the wind turbine. Further, the method includes applying a life model of the one or more components to the at least one distribution of cumulative loading data to determine an actual damage accumulation for the one or more components of the wind turbine to date. Moreover, the method includes implementing a corrective action for the wind turbine based on the damage accumulation.