DNV GL has joined forces with Swedish atmospheric science company, WeatherTech. The combined expertise of both companies will enable the development of a new icing model for wind turbines, allowing customers to better predict the performance of turbines in cold climates.
By combining WeatherTech’s WICE model, which predicts losses in production due to ice accretion on wind turbine blades, with DNV GL’s database of production data from operating wind farms in cold climates, icing loss estimates for wind projects can now be delivered. DNV GL has been assessing operational data from several cold climate wind farms located in Sweden, Norway and Finland for many years to establish a relationship between energy losses caused by icing and hub height altitude. The research, which analysed data from more than 70 meteorological masts and 30 operational wind farms across the Nordic region, has shown that altitude is the driving factor for icing losses. It is expected that around 12GW of new cold climate capacity will be built each year.
