Non-invasive condition monitoring and diagnostics techniques for wind turbines

Wind power has become the world's fastest growing renewable energy source in the past decade. Reducing the operation and maintenance cost is critical for wind power to compete with conventional energy source. This paper provides a thorough review of failure modes of wind turbines followed by discussion on existing condition monitoring and diagnostics techniques and future development needs. Non-invasive techniques with minor hardware modification requirement and high integration potential with the existing system provide the strongest attraction to wind industry.