The deficiency points in the periodic inspections
The Whitepaper of the German Wind Energy Association A new white paper from the German Wind Energy Association (BWE) provides an overview of the operational safety of a wind turbine and explains recurring inspections in theory and practice. It also deals with possible deficiency points and the frequency of deficiencies in the inspections.
Experience of WTG experts According to the experience of WTG experts, the majority of plants in Germany are safe to operate. In a non-representative sample of periodic inspections carried out by the 8.2 office in Aurich (approx. 300 plants) in 2006, a good 90 percent of the plants examined did not exhibit any operational or safety-relevant defects. In 6.5 percent of the plants from this sample, relevant defects were found and in 1.5 percent, serious defects were found.
A more recent sample (153 periodic inspections, period 2012 - 2014) shows a somewhat different picture: Here, only about half of the plants showed no relevant anomalies, while 49 percent showed relevant defects. At 0.7 percent, the proportion of serious defects was still very low.
The current sample (674 recurrent inspections, period 2012 - 2016) confirms the negative trend. Here - with a constantly low proportion of serious deficiencies - relevant deficiencies were already found in 64 percent of the examined plants.
The significant increase in the number of relevant deficiencies can be attributed in part to a different database (number of selected plants and composition of the sample), but also to an overall ageing of the plant population.
The whitepaper can be downloaded free of charge after registering with the BWE.
Source: Wind industry in Germany: Wind industry in Germany