Wind energy production in cold climate

This paper introduces results and recommendations of the research project ''Wind Energy Production in COld climates'' WECO (JOR3-CT95-0014), which was partially supported by the European Commission DG XII Non Nuclear Energy Programme aiming at the investigation of wind turbines under cold climate operation. It was shown experimentally and by numerical simulations that icing of rotor blades or other components lead to decreased production due to ice accretion or safety demands. The icing effect is directly related to the climate of the site of the wind turbine, and varies strongly from region to region in Europe. Extreme low air temperature again arises new demands for design parameters. Icing of anemometers and other wind gauges typically lead to wrong estimation of wind power potential and operational problems of wind turbines. (orig.)