Partial pitch wind turbine with floating foundation

• Main Authors: Friedrich Michael, Rebsdorf Anders Varming
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 15.08.2017
• Subjects: BLASTING; EQUIPMENT FOR SHIPPING; HEATING; LIGHTING; MACHINES OR ENGINES FOR LIQUIDS; MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; OR A REACTIVE PROPULSIVE THRUST, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; PRODUCING MECHANICAL POWER; RELATED EQUIPMENT; SHIPS OR OTHER WATERBORNE VESSELS; TRANSPORTING; WEAPONS; WIND MOTORS; WIND, SPRING WEIGHT AND MISCELLANEOUS MOTORS

The present invention relates a wind turbine comprising a wind turbine tower with a nacelle provided on the top to which a rotor hub with one or more wind turbine blades is rotatably mounted so that they form a rotor plane. A floating foundation having a upper section is mounted to the bottom of the wind turbine tower, wherein the foundation has a buoyant body configured to be installed at an offshore position having a water depth of about 40 m or more. The wind turbine blade comprises an inner blade section coupled to an outer blade section by a pitch junction in which a pitch mechanism is coupled to a pitch control system configured to regulate the pitch of the outer blade section relative to the inner blade section at wind speeds above a first wind speed. This allows the pitching to be used to counteract the tilting of the wind turbine caused by the different thrusts acting on the structure. This allows for a more linear control of the bending moment induced in the structure, since the blade sections provides a more constant thrust acting on the rotor hub which in turn allows the large negative damping loads and stresses introduced in the wind turbine to be eliminated.