Initial goals for the collaboration include enabling new levels of wind turbine safety through enhanced real-time monitoring of vibration, tilt, and other information that can be used to inform safer windmill operation and design. Leveraging new capabilities offered by advanced MEMS sensors adds intelligence at the edge for real-time monitoring, further advancing the green energy revolution.
Wind power has achieved rapid growth in China in recent years and, according to China’s National Energy Administration, by the end of 2022, the cumulative installed capacity of wind power in China reached approximately 370 million kilowatts, ranking first in the world. With the gradual expansion of wind power scale, wind turbine components are undergoing rapid iteration due to higher tower barrels, longer blades, and heavier engine rooms all of which increase the challenges around safe and reliable operation of wind power systems.
The tower barrel is one of the key windmill components requiring monitoring to ensure both safety and reliability. It extends from the ground up to the windmill generator and blades and to promote safety, as well as to help prevent tower collapse and other extreme accidents, Envision Energy has joined with ADI to introduce predictive maintenance technology into the core control of smart wind turbines.
This is done by deploying ADI’s precision inertial measurement unit (IMU) and low-noise, low-drift accelerometers on different positions of the tower barrel to monitor the key states of tower barrel in real-time. Information gathered by monitoring tower barrel conditions is used to inform danger prevention measures.
"In the long-term, wind power and energy storage will become the energy of the future for the world. While we move toward that goal, safety remains the first factor in the process of value mining," said Haipeng Chen, Director of Intelligent Control Division at Envision Energy. “We are pleased to work with ADI to add its predictive, precision, high-reliability MEMS sensors to our wind turbines. This increases the safety of the tower barrel as well as brings the blade diameter and tower barrel height to the next level, continuing to lead the progress of the industry."
"ADI has decades of experience in the field of MEMS sensors," said Neil Zhao, Director of MEMS Technology Group Asia at ADI. “We are committed to helping customers solve challenges in different scenarios through high-performance solutions and all-around support. This collaboration with Envision Energy supports the promotion of smart distributed wind turbines."
