Provided is a method for monitoring one or more wind turbines in a wind farm, each wind turbine having a rotor with rotor blades which are rotatable around a rotor axis, wherein one or several times during the operation of the wind farm a process is performed that includes i) obtaining a digital image of the respective rotor blade, the image being a current image taken by a camera looking at the respective rotor blade; ii) determining one or more operation characteristics of the respective rotor blade by processing the image by a trained data driven model, where the image is fed as a digital input to the trained data driven model and the trained data driven model provides the one or more operation characteristics of the respective rotor blade as a digital output.

Provided herein are detection systems and related methods for detecting moving objects in an airspace surrounding the detection system. In an aspect, the moving object is a flying animal and the detection system comprises a first imager and a second imager that determines position of the moving object and for moving objects within a user selected distance from the system the system determines whether the moving object is a flying animal, such as a bird or bat. The systems and methods are compatible with wind turbines to identify avian(s) of interest in airspace around wind turbines and, if necessary, take action to minimize avian strike by a wind turbine blade.

Disclosed is a method of condition monitoring a WTG (Wind Turbine Generator) comprising acts of collecting and storage of at least the following data sets together with their time stamps. Collection of generator power production measurements. Collection of mechanical status measurements. Collection of generator torque measurements. Collection of nacelle direction measurements. Collection of meteorological conditions measurements. The method compromises a further act of synchronizing the data sets. The invention also relates to a system for condition monitoring a WTG. The invention further relates to a system for visually inspecting a WTG.

Disclosed is a method of condition monitoring a WTG (Wind Turbine Generator) comprising acts of collecting and storage of at least the following data sets together with their time stamps. Collection of generator power production measurements. Collection of mechanical status measurements. Collection of generator torque measurements. Collection of nacelle direction measurements. Collection of meteorological conditions measurements. The method compromises a further act of synchronizing the data sets. The invention also relates to a system for condition monitoring a WTG. The invention further relates to a system for visually inspecting a WTG.

A method is provided for operation of a wind turbine having rotor blades attached to a hub, wherein a controller compensates for torsionally induced blade twist. The method includes operating the wind turbine according to a rated power output curve and maximum design thrust value, and periodically or continuously detecting for induced torsional twist in the rotor blades. Upon determination of torsional twist being induced in the rotor blades, the method includes adjusting the maximum thrust value in the control program to compensate for the induced twist. The wind turbine controller then controls pitch of the rotor blades as a function of the increased maximum thrust value so that power output of the wind turbine is not unnecessarily limited or increased by the induced twist on the rotor blades.

A method and apparatus for inspecting utility scale wind turbine generator blades from the ground includes a digital camera and an adjustable polarizing filter on a stable platform. The camera is used to record multiple digital images with varying polarization angles using an artificial polarized or polarized solar illumination to produce images with the same or similar registration but different polarization angles, followed by image processing using subtraction or absolute difference routines to yield high resolution, high contrast images with reduced glare and excellent surface definition over the field of view.

A method for assembling a wind turbine (10) having a first wind turbine component (20) with a first mounting interface (36) and a second wind turbine component (26) with a second mounting interface (34) includes positioning the second wind turbine component (26) relative to the first wind turbine component (20) such that the second mounting interface (34) is located a vertical distance above the first mounting interface (36), aligning the second mounting interface (34) to the first mounting interface (36), lowering the second wind turbine component (36) toward the first wind turbine component (20) to contact each other, and connecting the second mounting interface (34) to the first mounting interface (36). At any time during assembly when the second mounting interface (34) vertically overlaps the first mounting interface (36), the vertical distance between second mounting interface (34) and the first mounting interface (36) is maintained below a predetermined threshold (D). A system for assembling the wind turbine (10) is also disclosed.

Methods, systems and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media for an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) wind turbine inspection system. One of the methods includes obtaining first sensor information by an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), the first sensor information describing physical aspects of a wind turbine, including one or more blades of the wind turbine. An orientation of the blades of the wind turbine are determined based on the obtained first sensor information. A flight pattern for the UAV to inspect the blades of the wind turbine is determined, the flight pattern being based on the determined orientation of the blades. Each of the blades of the wind turbine is inspected by the UAV according to the determined flight pattern, the inspection including obtaining second sensor information describing the blades of the wind turbine.

A method is provided for operation of a wind turbine having rotor blades attached to a hub, wherein a controller compensates for torsionally induced blade twist. The method includes operating the wind turbine according to a rated power output curve and maximum design thrust value, and periodically or continuously detecting for induced torsional twist in the rotor blades. Upon determination of torsional twist being induced in the rotor blades, the method includes adjusting the maximum thrust value in the control program to compensate for the induced twist. The wind turbine controller then controls pitch of the rotor blades as a function of the increased maximum thrust value so that power output of the wind turbine is not unnecessarily limited or increased by the induced twist on the rotor blades.

A system and a method for control of a wind turbine for prevention of collisions between the rotor and flying objects such as birds, bats, and remotely-piloted aircraft is disclosed. The position and velocity of one or more flying objects is measured. The probability of the positions of the objects when they pass through the surface swept by the rotor blades is estimated. Increasing or decreasing the speed of the wind turbine rotor is performed such that the probability of collision between the rotor blades and the one or more objects is reduced or minimized, while otherwise continuing power production as usual.