State of the Art on the Monitoring Methods of Offshore Wind Energy Conversion System

Abstract

Along with the rapid economic development, the large power-generating wind energy conversion systems are increasing both in number and in size. Because of the high construction cost, the consequence of any structural failure, especially offshore where replacing a damaged member such as blade which weights tones, is pretty expensive. Consequently particular actions are required to the protection of these structures. Among these many strategies, continuously monitoring of the condition of the system which provides a predication long before the actual failure should be one of the most efficient ways. In the paper, the main problems and their corresponding surveillance schemes of the system including tower, foundation, blade and turbine nacelle are discussed.