Icing Can Cost Wind Turbines Up to 80% of Power Production

[rangerrebew]

Icing Can Cost Wind Turbines Up to 80% of Power Production
March 10, 2021 by Robert

Wind turbine blades can collect ice nearly a foot thick (30 cm) on the three-foot-wide tips of their blades. Did you realize those blades are 3-ft (about one-meter) wide?
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Researchers led by Iowa State’s Hui Hu studied wind-turbine icing in the field to learn in real-life terms how and where ice accumulates on rotating blades.
Researchers studied icing on this wind farm in eastern China. Photo courtesy of Hui Hu/Iowa State University

Wind turbine blades spinning through cold, wet conditions can collect ice nearly one-foot thick on the three-foot-wide tips of their blades, the researchers found.

That amount of ice affects blade aerodynamics and disrupts the balance of the entire turbine. Unfortunately, that loss of balance can disrupt energy production by up to 80 percent, the study showed.

https://www.iceagenow.info/icing-can-cost-wind-turbines-up-to-80-of-power-production/

[rangerrebew]

Makes sense to me.  Any pilot knows icing on wings can destroy a planes ability to get, or stay, airborne.  That's why planes are deiced before taking off, or have heaters on the wings to get rid of ice on descent and approach.  Since the blades on the turbines are airfoils, the same negative effect would be seen as on aircraft.

[Bigun]

Makes sense to me.  Any pilot knows icing on wings can destroy a planes ability to get, or stay, airborne.  That's why planes are deiced before taking off, or have heaters on the wings to get rid of ice on descent and approach.  Since the blades on the turbines are airfoils, the same negative effect would be seen as on aircraft.

Absolutely correct! It is IMPOSSIBLE for them to work when their shape I compromised by whatever means.

[thackney]

Which is why wind turbines are built with heating elements in the blade when operating in climates subject to icing, when the company plans for the icing instead of just hoping it never comes.

Wind Turbines are used above the arctic circle, they just need to be built for their location.

for example:
https://wicetec.com/technology/