The ice accumulating on wind turbine blades can damage their aerodynamics, causing them … [+]
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The failure of about half of the wind turbines in Texas earlier in the week was not the main cause of a power shortage crisis that left a third of Texans without power in historically freezing conditions.
Frozen infrastructure at gas and coal-fired power stations, such as pipelines, is the main culprit. Of the total amount of power suffered by torrents, wind accounted for only about 13%, a much smaller proportion than coal, gas and nuclear plants accounted for.
However, wind power is a key resource in Texas: it supplied 23% of the state’s electricity in 2020, second only to the 40% share with natural gas, and had been exporting larger than normal proportion before the broad times. Wind has also blamed a share of the blame for the Texas fiasco, citing a Wall Street Journal editor who attacked being exposed to freezing weather as another sign of such unreliability .
So it is fair to ask: why do wind turbines not fail all the time in colder climates, such as Canada, Sweden or the American Midwest?
The answer, briefly, is that turbines in colder locations are typically equipped with defrosting and other devices, such as built-in heating. In Texas during the historic cold snare, they were not.
“Cold weather packs can last [wind turbines] works when the temperature drops. This is the norm in colder states and in Europe, ”said Samuel Brock, spokesman for the Clean Energy Association of America. “Historically in Texas, with the warm climate, it was unnecessary. ”
In Canada, where icing wind turbines receive up to 20% of the time during the winter months, special “cold weather packs” are installed to heat turbine parts such as the box gear, yaw motors and pitch and battery, according to Canada. government. This can allow them to operate at temperatures down to less than 22 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 30 Celsius).
To prevent icing on rotor blades – which causes the rotors to trap air less efficiently and generate less power – a heating and waterproofing coating is used.
One Swedish company, Skellefteå Kraft, which has experience in wind turbines in the Arctic, cooks turbine blades with thin layers of carbon fiber which are then heated to prevent ice. Another method the company uses is to circulate hot air inside the brambles.
Major wind turbine manufacturers, such as General Electric
GE