Wind turbines

generators blades
anti-icing and deicing systems

Group members: Marco Bender, Andreas Beck, Michael Ralf Christian Kleine and
Mehmet Manis

1. Introduction
During certain weather conditions can occur ice on the rotor baldes in
winter. Most times at high humidity and low temperatures conditions. If the
rotor blades of the wind turbine are iced it reduces the effectiveness,
because due to the ice the aerodynamic shape of the blade will change. A
further consequence of the iced blades, there could be an imbalance of
the rotor, because the weight of blades will increase.
The consequence of all these issues are higher noise level and more
vibrations which affect the life time of a wind turbine negatively. In
addition, falling chunks of ice can pose a danger, thats why during periods
of frost the area around a wind turbine should be avoided.
For these reasons wind turbines are shut off automatically when they are
iced. But these is connected to profit cuts. To avoid the profit cuts wind
turbine manufacturers experimented very early with various methods of
de-icing the rotor blades. Where the results were not satisfactory by the
end of the 2000s. With the construction of more and more wind turbines in
cold climate regions in North-Europe and North America the problem of the
blades icing moved more into focus. Thats why the development of rotor
blade de-icing systems was accelerated by the late 2000s.
There are three kinds of icing:
Rime Ice: Super cooled liquid water droplets from clouds or fog are
transported by the wind. When they hit a surface, they freeze
immediately. If the droplets are rather small, soft rime is formed, if
the droplets are bigger, hard rime is formed. Its formation is
asymmetrical (often needles), usually on the windward side of a
structure. Its crystalline structure is rather irregular, surface uneven,
and its form resembles glazed frost. Rime ice typically forms at
temperatures from 0C down to -20C. The most severe rime icing
occurs at exposed ridges 7 Text taken from Recommended Practices

by IEA Task 19, arcticwind.vtt.fi 8 where moist air is lifted and wind
speed is increased. Hard rime is opaque, usually white, ice formation
which adheres firmly on surfaces making it very difficult to remove
it. The density of hard rime ice ranges typically between 600 and
900 kg/m3 (ISO 124948 ). Soft rime is a fragile, snow-like formation
consisting mainly of thin ice needles or flakes of ice. The growth of
soft rime starts usually at a small point and grows triangularly into
the windward direction. The density of soft rime is usually between
200 and 600 kg/m3 (ISO 12494), and it can be more easily removed.
Glaze: Glaze is caused by freezing rain, freezing drizzle or wet incloud icing and forms a smooth, transparent and homogenous ice
layer with a strong adhesion on the structure. It usually occurs at
temperatures between 0 and -6C. Glaze is the type of ice having
the highest density of around 900 kg/m3 . Freezing rain or freezing
drizzle occurs when warm air aloft melts snow crystals and forms
rain droplets, which afterwards fall through a freezing air layer near
the ground. Such temperature inversions may occur in connection
with warm fronts or in valleys, where cold air may be trapped below
warmer air aloft. Wet in-cloud icing occurs when the surface
temperature is near 0C. The water droplets which hit the surface do
not freeze completely. A layer of liquid water forms which, due to
wind and gravity, may flow around the object and freeze also on the
leeward side.
Wet snow: Partly melted snow crystals with high liquid water
content become sticky and are able to adhere on the surface of an
object. Wet snow accretion therefore occurs when the air
temperature is between 0 and +3C. The typical density is 300 to
600 kg/m3 . The wet snow will freeze when the wet snow accretion is
followed by a temperature decrease.

2. Analyze different sources of renewable energies

The utilization of renewable or regenerative energies denotes the usage of energy
sources whose resources are inexhaustible like sun, water, wind or geothermal

energy or resources which are growing back like the utilization of biomass. These
renewable energies are used since thousands of years by the human being but in
times of the cheap and seemingly endless occurring resources like fossil oil, natural
gas and coal these renewable energies have been forgotten. The growing world
population and the development of the human kind are leading to an enormous
energy demand which increases steadily. In this context, it is known that the burning
of fossil oil, natural gas and coal lead to high greenhouse gas emissions which are
the trigger for the global warming. In comparison to this, the greenhouse gas
emission of renewable energies is only about one-tenth unto one-hundredth towards
fossil fuels. These two arguments are the main effector of the huge boom due to
renewable energies regardless of whether biomass, solar energy, photovoltaic, wind
power or geothermal energy. In order to get an insight into this topic the following sub
items are dealing with the different renewable energies and their pros and cons.
Biomass
Biomass can be understood as chemical bounded solar energy. In the energetic use
of biomass or bioenergy, thermal energy, electricity and biomass fuels can be
received out of plants of different species. For this purpose, humans are mainly using
energy plants, wood and waste products like leftovers, straw and liquid manure.
Biomass is one of the oldest used energy source because of the time- and location
independency. Basically biomass can be transformed in solid, liquid and gaseous
energy sources. Following there will be different well-known procedures depicted.
The first conversion procedure is the thermochemical conversion. This type of
conversion can be conducted by charring for example wood into charcoal to generate
heat energy and electricity. Another procedure of the thermochemical conversion is
the gasification process in which biomass is converted into a gaseous energy source.
The last thermochemical conversion is the liquefaction/protolysis in which biomass is
liquefied under high temperatures. During this procedure it is important to eliminate
the oxygen to avoid a premature burning of the biomass. The next conversion
procedure is the physicochemical conversion. Oils and fats can be produced by
swaging or extracting seeds out of sunflowers or rape. For instance, these oils can
be used as fuel.
The last conversion is the biochemical conversion. Anaerobic depletion is the
transformation of organic substances while eliminating the oxygen. Due to this
biogas, which consists as many as 70% of methane, is produced caused by bacteria.

In contrast the aerobic depletion is the composting which uses oxygen to produce
heat which can be used by the help of heat pumps. The last type of the biochemical
conversion is the alcoholic fermentation. With the help of bacteria yeast starchy
biomass can be converted into alcohol which is used to drive engines.
Finally, the pros and cons of the biomass as a renewable energy will be shown up.
An advantage of biomass is that this resource is not fluctuating like wind and sun
energy. Another advantage of biomass is the efficient usage of biogenous waste and
remnants. Regarding to these two points the utilization of biomass and the
conversion is varied. A disadvantage of biomass is that a lot of water is needed to to
irrigate the energy crop plants. Furthermore, the addition of energy crop plants on
limited land is in competition with the food production.
Wind power
Wind power is an energy type which humans already used over thousand years ago.
Nowadays wind power stations are used to generate electricity made of wind power
in comparison to the windmills which were former used to grind corn. Simply stated, a
wind turbine works the opposite of a fan. Instead of using electricity to make wind,
like a fan, wind turbines use wind to make electricity. A wind power station mainly
consists of a tower, a nacelle, the rotor blades, a low speed and a high speed shaft,
the gearbox and a generator. Modern wind power stations are up to 100 meters high
and the diameter of a rotor blade is around 80 meters. Most turbines have three
aerodynamically designed blades. These blades spin a shaft which connects to a
generator that produces electricity. The wind passes over the blades creating lift
which causes the rotor to turn. The nacelle holds the pieces together and strengthens
the system. The turning blades spin the low speed shaft 30-60 times per minute. The
gears in the gearbox connect the low-speed shaft to the high speed shaft. They boost
the rotation speed of the high speed shaft to 1000-1800 rotations per minute. Finally,
the rapidly spinning shaft drives the generator to produce electric power. The
generators electrical output goes to a transformer that converts it to the right voltage
for the larger electricity grid. Stronger winds produce more energy. Wind turbines
generate energy at wind speeds of 4-25 meters per second. If the wind reaches
speed of over 25 meters per second, which happens rarely, the turbine is stopped by
a break because it can be damaged. The larger the radius of the blades, the more
energy can be produced. Doubling the blade radius can result in four times more
power.

Figure 1: Structure Wind Turbine

Onshore wind farms operate on land, generally in places of high altitudes or in large
open spaces where the wind tends to be strongest. Located anywhere from 2 miles
from the coast on land to 5 miles out to sea, near shore wind farms take advantage
of the strong winds created by coastal convection. Offshore wind power refers to the
construction of wind farms in bodies of water to generate electricity from wind. Better
wind speeds are available offshore compared to on land, so offshore wind powers
contribution in terms of electricity supplied is higher.
Solar
Solar energy describes the energy of the sunlight (electromagnetic radiation) which
can be used technically. The technically utilization can be the production of electrical
energy or thermal energy. Towards rough estimations the sun provides daily the
worldwide energy demand of 8 years. The sunlight can be used either to heats a
room directly by shining into it or can be used indirectly to generate electricity in solar
cells. But not all sunlight reaches the earth. 53% of the sunlight is scattered and
absorbed within the atmosphere due to clouds and other components.

As introduced before the sunlight can be used for the production of different types of
energy. One way is the solar thermal energy technology which uses the energy from
the sun for heating water or producing electrical power. Another way are solar cells
which convert energy of the sunlight directly into electricity.
Because of rising energy prices the production of electricity by using solar technology
is getting more and more attractive for a single person. Solar cells on the housetop
promise free and clean produced energy and are unlimited available. Furthermore
the solar technology is independent of fossil resources. But a serious problem the
solar technology has to deal with are intermittency problems. The electricity
production relies on the weather and the season. While rainy or cloudy weather the
solar cells are not able to work.
Hydroelectricity
Hydroelectricity is a very important component for the energy supply in the future. It
is a renewable source of energy because it converts the energy of the moving water
into electrical without wasting the environment with Greenhouse gases. Therefore the
potential and kinetic energy of the water is used to generate electricity. To use this
energy in an efficient way the water must be controlled, mostly by damming a river to
create a large reservoir of water. But there are quiet a large number of different types
of power plants using the energy of the moving water. For example conventional
hydroelectric power stations such as dams but also pumped-storage hydroelectric
power stations which use the moving water between reservoirs at different
elevations, run-of-the-river power stations which use the moving water of a river and
tidal power stations which makes use of the daily rise and fall of ocean water due to
tides. But in one thing they have in common: They use the moving water to produce
energy.
For a better understanding the conventional hydroelectric power station is used as a
model for all hydroelectric power stations. In this case the water is dammed up by a
huge reservoir dam and channeled through tunnels in the dam. Near the bottom of
the wall there is the water intake from which the water fall through the penstock by
gravity. The running water has a huge amount of kinetic energy because a large drop
in elevation and causes gigantic turbines to turn. The turbines convert the kinetic
energy into mechanical and electrical energy and produce electricity. The Turbines
turn a metal shaft in an electrical generator which produces the electricity. The

electricity is carried with power lines from the producing generator to the households
where everybody can use the energy.
Hydroelectricity has a very big potential to provide a large amount of clean energy
because the earth is mostly covered with water. Another very important point is that
water is available anytime independent from weather, daytime and time of the year.
The hydroelectricity has a high efficiency up to 90% only caused through the kinetic
energy of the water, so no other resources are necessary for the energy production
which might cause CO2 emission or other greenhouse gases.
The problem is while building the reservoir dam and other components of the
hydroelectricity power station the construction works produce greenhouse gases as
well. And the construction of such a power plant describes a huge intervention into
the ecosystem. On the one hand the dam causes an inundation of the land behind
the dam and on the other hand it is possible that productive land before the dam runs
dry. Because of that it affects the humans and the animals as well due to the
inundation, because they have to be resettled.
As a conclusion it has to be mentioned that it is necessary to see the project as a
whole thing and not only focus the efficiency while planning a hydroelectric power
station. It is important to agree to natural changes and the habitants in the project
area. There have to be done compromise solutions so that no one feels exploited.
For sure not everybody will agree with the project but while accomplishing the project
the project manager have to be mindful for all living being and nature within the
project area.
Geothermal energy
The in the upper Earth s crust stored heat (thermal energy) is called Geothermal
energy. Geothermal energy is energy derived from the heat of the earth. The earths
center is approximately 6000 kilometers under the surface of the earth and it is so hot
that it is molten. Heat from the center of the earth heats up the outer layers of rock
called mantel. Sometimes rain water seeps down through geological fault lines and
cracks becoming super-heated by the hot rocks below. When this hot water becomes
trapped below the surface it is called geothermal reservoir. One way to produce
electricity from geothermal energy is by drilling wells into geothermal reservoirs. The
hot water that rises emerges at the surface as steam and due to that turbines are
driven to produce electricity. If the water is not hot enough to produce steam it can
still be used to heat homes.

It is a renewable energy as well as wind energy, hydroelectric energy and so on.

Geothermal energy is independent from weather, daytime and is always available. It
is relatively environmentally friendly because neither fossil fuels are burned nor
pollutant gases are emitted.
3. Recommendation
Cold Climate (CC) areas are regions where icing events or periods with temperatures
below the operational limits of standard wind turbines occur, which may impact
project implementation, economics and safety. Areas where periods with
temperatures below the operational limits of standard wind turbines occur are defined
as Low Temperature Climate (LTC) whereas areas with icing events are defined as
Icing Climate (IC).

Figure 1 - Sketch of the definition of Cold Climate, Low Temperature Climate and Icing Climate

a. De-Icing possibilities

Up to now it exists more than only one way to solve the problem of icing blades. For
example the

hot air heating de-icing system, uses hot air produced by an electric fan heater
Electro-Thermal system, uses surface electrical resistance heating
Stop-Start Method, de-icing after stopping the rotor and starting again
Chemical freezing point depression, leaching of depressors out of the paint
matrix

Former trials, to provide the blades with repellent ice coatings, were not that
successful. Thats the reason because the most common ways are by heating the
blades. But it exists different ways to realize the heating-blade system.

b. Hot air heating de-icing system

Hot air produced by an electric fan heater located in the root of the rotor blade is
propelled over the ribs inside the rotor blade and along the front of the blade all the
way to the tip. From there, the air circulates back via the center rib in the direction of
the fan creating a continuous flow of air. Inside the blade, the hot air heats the
laminate to above 0C temperatures causing the ice and snow to melt. The energy
consumption of the rotor blade heating system is roughly 85 kW. In the case of rated
wind, the wind turbine would still produce approx. 96% energy even in heating
mode.

c. Electro-Thermal system
Electro-Thermal systems consist usually of heating surfaces which are installed on
the leading edge of the wind turbine blades.
The electrical heating uses an electrical resistance embedded inside the membrane
or laminated on the surface. Electrically heated foils can be heating wires or carbon
fibers. Heating elements cover the leading edge area of the blade. The ice detector
and blade surface temperature are used to control the operation of the heating
system. Additional temperature sensors are installed to protect the blade from
permanent damage induced by over-heating.

d. Conclusion
Concerning technology feasibility, economic viability and the environmental
sustainability all of these methods show their technology feasibility but not the
environmental sustainability or economic viability. E.g. the Stop-Start Method shows
the insufficient economic viability there due to the Stop and Restart a lot of time and
so energy is going to be lost. As well the Chemical freezing point depression does
have his disadvantages. Due to chemical additions out of the paint matrix, the
environmental sustainability is more negative influenced. Nevertheless only the
heating systems fulfill all of the above-named criteria.
Indeed, currently it is not possible to predict icing turbine-specifically in order to start
up de-icing systems before there is ice on the blades. Only after the detection of ice
on the blades, the process of removing the ice can be started. A preventive de-icing,
which would then be anti-icing is not available today. 1 But the

1 http://www.elforsk.se/Global/Vindforsk/Survey
%20reports/12_13_report_icing.pdf