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Installation of instruments on wind energy plant

13.10.2016

In the course of the project ICE-CONTROL funded by the Austrian Klima- und Energiefonds a wind energy plant has been equipped with meteorological instruments from 4-6 October 2016.

One major project aim is the determination of the meteorological conditions leading to icing at the wind energy plant. The data will also be used for verification of the model chain: meteorological model – icing model – production model. The measurement of icing is a great challenge per se. The classical approach uses the rotating Makkonen cylinder to measure the amount of icing. However this does not represent the icing on the blade. Additional to the Makkonen cylinder we use newly developed sensors which are affixed on the blades directly to measure icing on the blades. Contributions by the IMGW to the equipment consit of a present weather detector to measure the visibility and a distrometer to measure the spectra of precipitation. Both are important to quantify the in-cloud icing or icing from falling particles. The measurement campaigns are planned for the winters 2016/2017 and 2017/2018.

Fig. 1: Wind energy plant to be equipped at Hunsrück, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany. Hub height: 134 m (approx.. height of Stephan’s Cathedral in Vienna).

© IMGW

Fig. 2: Present weather detector installed at the railing at hub height.

© IMGW