The purpose of this project is to analyze a new concept that
uses a drone to perform de-icing and maintenance operations
on wind turbines.
First an introduction to the wind energy sectors is made to
understand the effects that ice have on wind turbines and
energy production and why there is a need for a cost
effective system to perform de-icing and other maintenance
operations.
The drone concept is analyzed alongside with the maturity
of the system to understand the capabilities and the
opportunities that a concept like that creates for the wind
energy sector.
The research concluded that using a drone system for deicing and maintenance on wind turbines has a lot of
potential. It has the potential of performing operation and
decrease the downtime due to icing but the technology
seems to be not quite mature enough to handle day to day
operations although successful tests have been made.