Operation Beyond Design Life
According to IEC 61400 [1], the lifetime of a wind turbine is a minimum of 20 years . However, differences between the design loads and the actual loads on site can lead to the possibility of operating the wind energy converter (WEC) longer than the design life. Using an aeroelastic simulation the individual overall lifetime can be calculated for each main component.
By Jürgen Holzmüller, President, 8.2 Group, Germany