How innovative measurement technology can help wind turbines generate electricity longer

The expansion of wind power generation has been booming for 20 years. More precisely: since the Erneuerbare-Energien-Gesetz (EEG) came into force. It was not until this promotion, introduced at the beginning of 2000, that sustainable electricity generation really took off. 

But soon expires for two decades limited help for the first wind turbines.

Since they have now been depreciated, many turbines could continue to feed electricity into the grid at low cost. This would be an additional yield for the operators, because they had calculated a life of only 20 years. Whether a turbine is technically suitable for further operation, however, must be answered unequivocally.

Continued operation through reliable data

Without suitable measurement methods, however, operators cannot know exactly whether the turbines have reached the end of their technical life after all. Concrete data would help them, for example, to reduce the necessary safety reserves. Up to now, these data have mostly been missing. At the same time, they could show more reliably how much wind and weather have burdened the turbines in recent decades.

Some older wind turbines are therefore being dismantled, although their continued operation would be an attractive alternative. The young company fos4X from Munich has developed a solution for this area. With its sensors, it is possible to determine exactly what forces a rotor is exposed to. Models are created from this information. They provide an important basis for assessing how long the turbine can continue to operate. As a result, many wind turbines could produce electricity for longer.

Fiber optic measurement technology for wind turbines

In contrast to most common measuring instruments, these sensors do not work with electricity, but with light. fos4X uses fiber optic sensors, which detect the change of wavelengths. This makes them superior: Thunderstorms and lightning cannot disturb the transmission, so the sensors can be mounted directly in the rotor blade. There they reliably measure the forces acting and calculate the actual loads on the turbine on the basis of this data.