UK's RES and NREL launch wind turbine energy efficiency gain 'Dynamic Yaw' technology
The partners claim a 'systems approach' where turbines share data to enhance management and control boosts wind farm performance
The UK’s RES and US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), have partnered to license and deploy innovative digital “Dynamic Yaw” technology to optimise performance of wind turbines.
The technology effectively innovates the yaw system of turbines – the component responsible for its orientation toward the wind – to maximize the overall performance and efficiency of turbines in a wind farm, according to RES and NREL.
“The renewables industry is on the cusp of widespread digitalisation,” said Alex Bamberger, vice president, digital solutions, at RES.
Traditionally, a single wind turbine is designed to work in isolation and self-orient in a manner that optimises its own performance.
Dynamic Yaw technology takes a systems approach to consider how each individual wind turbine on a project can share data and work together as a team to increase the overall performance of the group of turbines.
RES and NREL claim this systems approach has the effect of improving overall energy efficiency by adding the equivalent of 1-3 wind turbines to a 100 turbine-strong wind farm through enhanced management and controls.
Bamberger said the technology will help wind asset owners fully enhance the overall output of their assets through better utilization of their data, and subsequent autonomous action of the asset.
“By sharing farm wide data and transforming the yaw optimization strategy of a wind farm to maximize overall performance, the ‘Dynamic Yaw’ transforms a collection of individual turbines into a team," he said.
Developed, installed and maintained by RES, Dynamic Yaw incorporates IP licensed from NREL. RES has trial tested the technology for over seven years across turbines at wind farms in the UK.
The technology the NREL and RES collaboration unlocks will initially target customers in the Americas, but it can be installed anywhere in the world, bridging the gap between digital data and action on site.
As well as driving the energy efficiency of wind farms, the technology will improve supply chain efficiencies by enabling production of more renewable energy from the same investment, according to RES and NREL.
This will allow more efficient capital allocation – to extract all available renewable energy from our existing assets.
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