Summary

2'300 m asl. A test station of the Swiss meteorological network SwissMetNet was installed nearby in 2003. The proximity of the two facilities operating under icing conditions led to the launch of the research project "Alpine Test Site Gütsch ” which is embedded in the European "COST Action 727". The project's main goals reside in an inter-comparison of different ice detectors and in the monitoring of the wind turbine performance under icing conditions. The investigations will take place during the winters 2006/07 and 2007/08. Initial observations were started during winter 2005/06. In order to enable a visual observation of the rotor blades, a web cam was mounted on the nacelle of the wind turbine. By the use of motion detection, a picture of the passing rotor blade is taken. The images are sent to the project’s website and updated every 30 minutes. As the wind turbine is located close to ski slopes, ice throw is an important safety issue. The area around the wind turbine was inspected after every icing event for ice fragments that had fallen off the blades. Distance from and direction relative to the turbine as well as size and weight of the recovered fragments were mapped and, together with photos, collected in a data base. The wind turbine detects by comparing effective power production to the power curve. This procedure does not produce satisfactory results with light icing or at low wind speeds. Therefore, additional measurements were in-stalled on the nacelle of the wind turbine in order to be able to detect such conditions and start heating manually