Making the Most Energy from the Wind
There is an old piece of wisdom that states: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” But some wind farm operators, especially in Germany and North America, are finding that advice difficult to heed. That’s because technology improvements in turbines coupled with software analytics are revealing that signing up for a performance upgrade could allow them to squeeze even more wind energy – and money – out of existing wind farms.
Replacing Old Technology with New
According to the recently released Global Wind Report by the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC), “Repowering has become a billion euro market.” The report shows that in Germany 544 wind turbines with a combined capacity of 264 MW were taken offline in 2014 and replaced by new turbines with a capacity of 1000 MW.
