The first autumn storm of 2013 was a heavy one. Gusts of 151 km/hr were measured. Our turbine in Schoondijke survived and recorded top energy production.
On October 28, an active storm depression went over the United Kingdom via the North Sea to Denmark. This depression caused strong winds in the Netherlands for a short period of time. The Dutch weather agency gave code red for the coastal area for very heavy gusts of over 100 km/hr.
The tower of the wind turbine on the test field in Schoondijke that is normally free standing has been guyed to withstand the strong wind coming. The hinge underneath the big tower is the weak point of the structure and would face heavy fatigue loads during the storm. The turbine itself is protected by a load diversion regulator (LDR) that transfers the electricity to a dump load in case of over-voltage when the turbine is spinning very fast. The turbine has also a furling tail that automatically turns the turbine out of the wind at high wind speeds slowing the turbine down.
In the morning the storm of 9 Beaufort passed by over the test field in Schoondijke in the south-west area of the Netherlands (Zeeland) based on the hourly average wind speed . The storm was more severe in the north-western part of the Netherlands with gusts of over 120 km/hr. In the northern area (Wadden) gusts from 140 up to 151 km/hr were measured.
The storm caused a lot of damage on buildings and fallen trees and even two people died. Our wind turbine survived the storm and produced top record power and energy numbers, see graphs of week 44 in archives power and energy . The protection systems like the LDR and tail furling had functioned well during the short period of very strong wind gusts. Some wind turbines were less lucky, like this one in Schoorl (North-west Netherlands):
