Wednesday, January 20, 2016

Wind power in hot water


In Sweden a helicopter sprays hot water on iced-up wind turbine blades. 

Glaciated rotor blades are the scourge of wind turbine owners in cold climates. Alpine Helicopter in Constance has developed a new way to kick-start production when the ice forces the turbines stop: a helicopter that sprays hot water.

It takes us about 1.5 hours to process a sharp occurrence of icing wind turbines, says CEO Mats Widgren.

The water is heated over night using a truck equipped with a 260 kW oil burner. When morning dawns are 44 cubic meters of the 60-degree water in the tanks, and the helicopter can start running in the shuttle to the icy wind turbine.




Mark In Mayenne said...

So how much energy does it take to keep that chopper in the air and how long does the turbine have to run to recoup it?

A K Haart said...

Mark - I don't know, but presumably subsidy makes it all feasible.