Grant: Applied Research and Development Grants - Level 1

Marinvent Inc. wishes to assess the potential of it's sensors for the wind industry. This project aims at integrating and testing the sensor in real conditions to evaluate its potential in the Wind Energy sector. Indeed, atmospheric icing has a significant impact on the development and the operation of wind parks. To reach an optimal performance, the turbine must first be able to detect ice on the rotor blades immediately when it occurs. However, no sensors actually measure directly the effect of icing on the aerodynamics of the blade. The Canadian company's technology has the same potential for the wind industry and could be used to detect the effect of icing or flow variations during turbulent wind condition caused by complex terrain or wake effects from nearby wind turbines. This could lead to important benefits to the industry by reducing the power loss during icing, perform real-time turbine optimization and reduce operations and maintenance cost. Consequently, it will contribute to Canada's international reputation as a leader in cold climate and sensor technology solutions and will promote the global view of Canada as a prominent exporter of green energy solutions. In this context, Marinvent Inc. would like to work with Nergica to make use of their unique position as wind industry experts with an advanced wind turbine testing and research facility. The expertise that Nergica employees will acquire on the feasibility study into Marinvent sensor adaptation for wind energy sector will be both innovating and unique. Nergica was mandated to do a technical review of the sensor to see if this technology could be able to detect the onset of stall of the blades during icing events or even optimize the rotor performance during normal operation. Nergica's findings during this review is that the sensor has similar range of operation on a wind turbine compared to an aircraft and that the installation of the device is feasible compared to other ice detection sensors installed on blades.