In last week’s Wind View, we discussed how our wind turbines rotate, or “yaw” to face the wind. This swivel helps them optimize the amount of energy they produce. But sometimes, you may see turbines facing different directions, like in the photo below. Why is that?
There are a few possible reasons why turbines might be yawed differently:
- To prevent the cables inside from becoming twisted, the turbine eventually must rotate in the opposite direction from how it was rotating before. Our turbines do this automatically to keep all the cables inside healthy and tidy.
- For turbine safety and longevity, One Energy intentionally limits the operation of our turbines during high winds. When this happens, they might still yaw, but since they’re not operating to capture the wind, the directions they face may not be uniform.
- To adjust for wind interference, a turbine might yaw in a different direction when a neighboring turbine is blocking it from catching as much wind.
For maintenance, a turbine might be shut down so it doesn’t yaw when under inspection, to ensure the safety of our technicians inside.
