Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Wind turbine operation and maintenance experience

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:5835095

Operational information was collected and evaluated from five sites covering four different wind turbine types. The results are presented for the current experience, and projections are developed for future large wind power generation stations. Although preliminary because of the small data base, several important trends are apparent. The wind turbines with ratings near 50 kW are achieving higher availabilities than wind turbines with ratings of 2.5 to 4.0 MW. However, projections indicate that all of the evaluated wind turbines could achieve satisfactory availability levels if the manufacturers pursue aggressive corrective action programs. Operation and maintenance costs, when projected to large clusters of wind turbines, should be $0.01 per kWh of lower for mature horizontal axis wind turbines with ratings near 50 kW. Although less certain because of the smaller data base, operation and maintenance costs for large clusters of mature, horizontal axis wind turbines rated at 2.5 MW should also be $0.01 per kWh or lower. Valuable information has been learned from the data presented herein, but the data base was not large enough to draw statistically valid conclusions. The next interim report, scheduled for release in early 1985, will include operational experience for a larger number of wind turbines. This will enable the utility industry to begin to draw conclusions regarding the potential of different wind turbines to evolve into economic wind power generation stations.

Research Organization:
Lynette (R.) and Associates, Inc., Bellevue, WA (USA)
OSTI ID:
5835095
Report Number(s):
EPRI-AP-3735; ON: TI85920508
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English