A wind turbine is an electrical device that converts wind energy into mechanical work, which drives the rotor to rotate and ultimately outputs alternating current (AC).

Can the fan blade speed increase indefinitely as the wind speed increases?

When the wind speed exceeds the limited speed of the fan, the fan should stop working. Because if the speed is too fast, the centrifugal rate is greatly enhanced, the inertia tendency will break the balance of the fan itself, and the blades will be easily broken.

Therefore, each type of fan has a maximum speed. When the wind speed is too fast, it is necessary to operate the computer in the background and stop running the fan to reduce the damage and wear caused by its own inertia. This is equivalent to two identical cars, one with a speed of 20 km/h and one with a speed of 200 km/h, which brakes more easily is the same reason. Therefore, the slow rotation of the fan blades can more effectively protect the wind turbine from damage.

Wind turbine structure
Nacelle: The nacelle accommodates the key equipment of the wind turbine, including the gearbox and generator.

Rotor blades: collect the wind and transmit it to the rotor shaft. Nowadays, on 600 kW wind turbines, each rotor blade measures about 20 meters in length and is designed to resemble an airplane wing.

Shaft center: The rotor shaft center is attached to the low-speed shaft of the wind turbine.

Low-speed shaft: The low-speed shaft of the wind turbine attaches the rotor shaft to the gearbox. on 600 kW wind turbines, the rotor speed is quite slow, about 19 to 30 revolutions per minute. The shaft contains conduits for the hydraulic system to excite the operation of the aerodynamic gates.

Gearbox: To the left of the gearbox is the low-speed shaft, which increases the speed of the high-speed shaft up to 50 times that of the low-speed shaft.

High-speed shaft and its mechanical brake: The high-speed shaft operates at 1500 rpm and drives the generator. It is equipped with an emergency mechanical brake for when the aerodynamic brake fails, or when the wind turbine is being serviced.

Generator: Often referred to as an induction motor or asynchronous generator. On modern wind turbines, the maximum power output is usually 500 to 1500 kW.

Yawing device: turning the nacelle with the help of an electric motor in order to square the rotor to the wind. The yawing device is operated by an electronic controller which senses the wind direction by means of a wind vane. The diagram shows the wind turbine yawing. Typically, the wind turbine will only yaw a few degrees at a time as the wind changes its direction.

Electronic controller: contains a computer that constantly monitors the status of the wind turbine and controls the yawing device. To prevent any malfunction (i.e. overheating of the gearbox or generator), the controller can automatically stop the wind turbine and call the wind turbine operator via telephone modem.

Hydraulic system: used to reset the aerodynamic gates of the wind turbine.

Cooling element: contains a fan for cooling the generator. In addition, it contains an oil cooling element to cool the oil in the gearbox. Some wind turbines have water-cooled generators.

Tower: The wind turbine tower contains the nacelle and the rotor. Usually taller towers have an advantage because the higher they are above the ground, the higher the wind speed. Modern 600 kW wind turbines have towers of 40 to 60 meters high.

Anemometer and wind vane: Used to measure wind speed and direction.

Rudder: Commonly found in small wind turbines (generally 10KW and below) with wind direction on a horizontal axis. Located at the back of the rotor and connected to the rotor.