Neural networks for condition monitoring of wind turbines

Wind energy is the renewable energy source considered a hope in future as a clean and sustainable energy, as can be seen by the growing number of wind farms all over the world. With the huge proliferation of wind farms, as an alternative to the traditional fossil power generation, the economic issues dictate the necessity of monitoring systems to optimize the availability and profits. The relatively high cost of operation and maintenance associated to wind power is a major issue. Wind turbines are most of the time located in remote areas or located offshore and these factors increase the referred operation and maintenance cost. Good maintenance strategies are needed to increase the health management of wind turbines. The objective of this paper is to show the application of neural networks to analyze all the wind turbine information to identify possible future failures, based on previous information of the turbine.