The controller is developed to self-optimise the blade angle control for wind speeds below rated power. The main benefits are that no costly work and interference from personnel is needed during the process of pitch angle optimisation and that it is ensured that the turbine runs in the most optimal configuration. Practical tests have shown an energy production increase of more than 1%, after running a test version of the power optimisation system.

The load on a wind turbine can vary a lot from site to site and development work is being conducted to develop a Load Control system where the turbine is not only controlled to reach the nominal power, but also is controlled according to the loading history. The objective of using such a system is to ensure the projected lifetime of major components or to enable us to use these to a maximum within the projected lifetime. The first phase of this work has been finalised, with the development of the fundamental control scheme for gearbox load control.

In co-operation with the National Institute of Risø and others, the development of a laser-based device for measuring of the wind speed before it reaches the wind turbine and a control strategy to utilise this knowledge is being conducted. The potential of the system is to increase the turbine efficiency and reduce the loading by taking advantage of the knowledge about the incoming wind. Further the system could make it easier to make power curve measurements.

The blades have a crucial influence on the wind turbine performance and despite the fact we use some of the most modern and optimised blades we would like to do it even better in the future. For this reason NORWIN is participating in a project developing a blade especially made for optimal performance with the ASR control strategy. This means that the basic principles of ASR were taken into consideration when designing the blade. The first test set is now running on a NORWIN turbine. The work is supported by The Danish Energy Agency funds for Developing Renewable Energy.

By using standard components both we and our customers gain two great advantages: You are guaranteed to get a well tested product and the customer is assured that spare parts will be available in 15 years, if it should be necessary. Examples on relatively standardised parts are: Gear, generator, main bearing, blade bearings, yaw bearing, yaw gearing, control modules and so on. It takes experience and knowledge about wind turbine technology to choose the right components and to combine these with the specially designed parts that a modern wind turbine also consists of in a way to achieve a product of high quality. That is why the 19 years of experience in construction and maintenance of wind turbines has been used in the development of the NORWIN 46-ASR-600 kW / 750 kW wind turbines.