A flywheel is attached to a shaft of a turbine. As the shaft rotates, the flywheel swings outwards away from the shaft and regulates the angular velocity of the rotating shaft. In an embodiment, there are multiple flywheels attached to the shaft. In another embodiment there is a first flywheel that controls a second flywheel. In another embodiment, the flywheel has adjustable or centrifugal displacement of counterbalanced masses for effective rotational diameter with effective rotational balance. In another embodiment, a small pilot centrifugal displacement flywheel may control a clutch by rotational velocity and may include a hysteresis control. An example of a clutch may limit that degree to which the arms of the flywheel may be extended and/or retracted. In another embodiment, a small pilot centrifugal displacement flywheel controls the hysteresis of a centrifugal flywheel displacement.

An auxiliary wind energy device comprising a valve device embodied as a rotating aperture plate located adjacent a fixed aperture plate to cyclically operate between open and closed positions to produce intermittent flow at the inlet of the housing and piezoelectric oscillator blades subject to said intermittent flow bending forwardly and backwardly to generate electrical current.

Wind turbine blade comprising at least one deformable trailing edge section having a plurality of actuators consecutively arranged substantially downstream from one another and a control system for controlling the actuators, wherein a downstream end of one actuator is connected by a substantially rigid link with an upstream end of the next actuator and the plurality of actuators comprises an upper actuator being mounted above a chord line of the blade section and a lower actuator being mounted below a chord line of the blade section. Wind turbines comprising such a blade and methods of controlling loads on a wind turbine blade are also described.

A rotor blade for a wind turbine having an aerodynamic profile which extends from a blade root up to a blade tip and has a leading edge and a trailing edge. An adjustable aerodynamic flap, which can be adjusted between a retracted and a deployed position by means of a flap drive, is provided on the rotor blade. The flap drive comprises a passive control system which controls a flap position depending on rotation speed. The passive control system of the flap drive is low-maintenance and does not interfere with the safety concept of a wind turbine. In comparison with a reference rotor blade without a flap, the rotor blade has increased lift at low wind speeds.

A method for preventing catastrophic damage in a drivetrain of a wind turbine includes receiving, via a controller, a speed measurement of the generator of the drivetrain. The method also includes determining an electrical torque of a generator of the drivetrain of the wind turbine. The method further includes estimating, via the controller, a mechanical torque of the rotor as a function of at least one of the electrical torque and the speed measurement of the generator. Further, the method includes comparing, via the controller, the estimated mechanical torque to an implausible torque threshold, wherein torque values above the implausible torque threshold speed values greater that the implausible speed threshold. Moreover, the method includes implementing, via the controller, a control action for the wind turbine when the estimated mechanical torque exceeds the implausible torque threshold.

A pitch control system characterized by a hub with at least two blade housings on the hub that are disposed around the hub axis. The blade housings have corresponding blades that engage with them. The blades spiral along housing longitudinal axes toward and away from the hub axis about a segment of helical path to effect a change in the pitch of each blade. One or more elastic members draw the blades toward the hub axis, either directly or indirectly. There are pitch mechanisms effective to facilitate blades to spiral around housing-longitudinal axes. A blade will spiral away from the hub axis when the centrifugal force exerted on the blade exceeds the opposing elastic force in the housing-longitudinal direction (neglecting other forces). Conversely, blades spiral toward the hub axis when said centrifugal force is less than said elastic force. There is an imaginary plane orthogonal to the hub axis. Housing-longitudinal axes have angles with respect to the imaginary plane of not more than 30 degrees.

A method for directly determining a theoretical damage of at least one component of a device includes providing load-specific reference data in an evaluation unit, sensing actual load-specific data by a load sensing system, and transmitting the actual, load-specific data to the evaluation unit. The actual load-specific data includes classified load collectives comprising a dwell time of occurring damage variables at defined load levels, a number of load changes of occurring damage variables, and an event count of occurring damage variables. The method further includes scaling the load-specific reference data to the actual load-specific data for calculating the theoretical damage of the at least one component and determining a remaining service life.

A method for directly determining a theoretical damage of at least one component of a device includes providing load-specific reference data in an evaluation unit, sensing actual load-specific data by a load sensing system, and transmitting the actual, load-specific data to the evaluation unit. The actual load-specific data includes classified load collectives comprising a dwell time of occurring damage variables at defined load levels, a number of load changes of occurring damage variables, and an event count of occurring damage variables. The method further includes scaling the load-specific reference data to the actual load-specific data for calculating the theoretical damage of the at least one component and determining a remaining service life.

An actuator rod assembly for a blade pitch control system is provided herein. The actuator rod assembly includes a tubular outer rod and an inner rod. The outer rod has a first end and a second end. The inner rod has a first end and a second end and extends through the tubular outer rod. The inner rod is tensioned against the tubular outer rod so as to place the outer rod in compression.

A wind power plant has at least one rotor. The rotor has at least two rotor blades and each rotor blade is rotatable about a substantially radially aligned adjustment axis. At least one angle adjustment device is provided for adjustment of the rotor blades. The angle adjustment device has a control disk and at least two cam disks interacting with the control disk. Each cam disk is rotatably mounted about a rotation axis. The rotation axis of the respective cam disk coincides, and is in particular superimposed, together with the respective adjustment axis of the respective rotor blade. The noise development, the maintenance expense, and/or costs of a wind power plant are reduced in that the cam disks are functionally effectively permanently coupled via at least one coupling element.