1-3 for a 100: New ‘Dynamic Yaw’ tech to supercharge wind turbine efficiency

In an attempt to license and deploy an innovative technology to optimize the performance of wind turbines, the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) collaborated with Renewable Energy Systems (RES), the world’s largest independent renewables company.

Currently, wind turbines operate independently, prioritising their own energy output without considering the overall wind farm performance.

Additionally, while each turbine has detailed local wind data, this information isn’t shared to optimise production across the entire farm, leading to reduced efficiency and increased stress on the turbines.

RES’ Dynamic Yaw system employs control and wake steering techniques to enhance wind turbine yaw decisions, resulting in improved overall performance and efficiency, enabling wind farms to reach their full potential, according to the company.

Technology effectively innovates the yaw system of wind turbines

The ‘Dynamic Yaw’ technology effectively innovates the yaw system of wind turbines – the component responsible for the orientation of a turbine toward the wind – to maximize the overall performance and efficiency of turbines in a wind farm.

“The renewables industry is on the cusp of widespread digitalization,” said Alex Bamberger, VP Digital Solutions at RES.

“The ‘Dynamic Yaw’ technology will help wind asset owners optimize the overall output of their assets through better utilization of their data, and subsequent autonomous action of the asset.”

RES has tested the technology for over seven years across turbines at wind farms in the UK. Dynamic Yaw is a software product that interacts with existing turbine controller hardware.

RES Yaw Control optimises turbine alignment and maximises energy capture by improving yaw decisions. The company claims that collective control minimises costs by reducing yaw activations, which decreases wear and tear on the system, by preventing responses to short-term turbulence.

This systems approach has the effect of improving overall energy efficiency by adding the equivalent of 1-3 wind turbines to a 100 turbine-strong wind farm through enhanced management and controls, reported Business Wire .

Technology to help wind farms to maximize overall performance

Bamberger claimed that by sharing farm wide data and transforming the yaw optimization strategy of a wind farm to maximize overall performance, the ‘Dynamic Yaw’ transforms a collection of individual turbines into a team.

He believes that licensing NREL’s technology is a good example of the way RES is able to combine its deep renewables expertise and understanding of how assets work, with the technology of leading research institutions. Merging these two capabilities is enabling RES to use modern digital infrastructure to manage data and turn insight into action.

Technology can help customers reach net zero much faster

This technology isn’t a science project any more, it’s real and able to help customers reach net zero much faster, according to Bamberger.

“This technology demonstrates the ability of coordinated wind farm control to deliver improved performance and energy yield,” said Paul Fleming, NREL senior engineer for Wind Energy Control Systems.

The technology can be installed anywhere in the world, bridging the gap between digital data and action on site.

The technology will boost the energy efficiency of wind farms and improve supply chain efficiencies by enabling production of more renewable energy from the same investment.

This will allow more efficient capital allocation – to extract all available renewable energy from our existing assets, reported Business Wire .