Wind turbine maintenance and topical research questions

The renewable energy sector is increasing in size and wind-farm technology has improved in leaps and bounds. However the concepts of Health and Usage Monitoring and remote condition monitoring seem not to have kept pace. Whilst the manufacturers offer such technology, the user or owner communities have perhaps not understood the need and have not embraced the technology which could increase maintenance efficiency and increase availability. Using an example of a failure in a gearbox after nearly 4 years of operation and which resulted in nearly 7 weeks loss of availability, the paper identifies research questions that could produce a more enlightened maintenance regime for wind-farms based on usage and remote condition monitoring. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.