Professional Documents
Culture Documents
15P-B5
I.
Introduction
593
TABLE I.
Total
Area of winter
lightning
Other area
TABLE II.
Damage related to
wind turbine blades
(/100systems/year)
5.1
14.0
3.2
7.9
7.6
6.1
Damage level
Examples of damage
Catastrophic
Serious
Normal
Minor
EMC14/Tokyo
III.
15P-B5
Sea of Japan
Pacific Ocean
a) Summer (April to October)
Sea of Japan
Pacific Ocean
"#$%&'#'$! ()*)+,!
-.)/0)'!
"#$%&'#'$!
2#34!
53363376'&!
"#$%&'#'$!
2#34!
8)')$676'&!
!
594
EMC14/Tokyo
15P-B5
Observation
site
Year
Number of
samples
Goishigamine
Wind turbine:
H=60m
Kashiwazaki &
Fukui
Tower K:
H=80m
Tower F:
H=200m
Nikaho
Wind turbine:
H=90m
20042006
19781986
20052008
Maximum
transferred
charge
Total 110
Percentage
of lightning
with a
charge of
more than
300 C
4%
Total 97
Positive 32
Negative 65
7%
12%
3%
>1000C
Positive 16
Negative
147
Bipolar 42
6%
0%
12%
430C
687 C
(Bipolar)
A. Interception of lightning
Several methods have been proposed to protect wind
power generations systems against lightning. One of
promising schemes is to put the receptor(s) on a blade surface
to intercept lightning and make lightning current flow into the
ground safely. Model experiments using actual wind turbine
blades [18-20] show that a receptor put at the tip of a blade
effectively intercepts lightning, especially for negative
lightning. However, the direction of lightning leaders
approaching a blade is an important factor for inception
efficiency of a receptor system. In the case of winter lightning,
upward lightning from a tall structure often occurs [14, 15, 21,
22]. Under such a condition, a metal receptor that covers the
tip of a blade is an effective method to intercept lightning and
to protect wind turbine blades from the catastrophic damage.
In the case of the winter lightning, to construct a high
tower on a coastal side is also effective to capture lightning
[23] because winter thunderstorms come from a direction of
the Sea of Japan. However, this scheme is not always costeffective and multiple towers may be necessary for a wind
farm where many wind turbines exist along a line.
B. Reduction of transient overvoltages
As stated above, the damage of a blade by winter lightning
is important for wind power generation systems in Japan and
main concern of manufacturers and wind power generation
developers has been how to protect wind power generation
595
EMC14/Tokyo
15P-B5
Conclusions
596