Re: Storm and wind turbines.

Enzo Matrix said the following on 10/03/2008 19:25:
Richard Brooks wrote:
Watching the local news the reported said that if the wind speed
increased too much, the wind turbine would shut down.

It doesn't shut down in the way you are thinking. The blades do not come to a halt. That would provide too much stress on the blade mountings. The turbine is simply disconnected from the generator

I wasn't thinking that way as I know the Rotol system for example. It was something a reporter said and it sounded ridiculous of course. If the blades are variable pitch controlled by a governer they could change angle and take on 200mph winds if they wished, being inline with wind direction at 0degrees pitch.

Why didn't they think of installing something akin to a variable pitch
screw so that if the wind was greater, the pitch of the turbine blades
increased?

They do have that sort of system. It is intended to produce a constant speed of rotation at the optimum efficiency of the generator. However in a very high wind, that optimum speed will be exceeded even if the blade is set to its minimum pitch. If the blades were left connected to the generator in overspeed conditions they could damage it.

Surely if the system is overspeeding then there is no minimum pitch, i.e., feathering.



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