Abstract
According to popular belief, air temperature effects on wind turbine power output are produced solely by air density variations, and power is proportional to air density. However, some cases have been reported, all involving stall-controlled wind turbines, in which unexpected high power output was observed at very low temperatures.As a preliminary study, this article intends to quantify the influence of air temperature on the power production of the Tacke TW600 wind turbine installed in Tiverton, Ontario, Canada. Increases in power output due to air temperature variation are stratified by wind velocity, showing that these increases are below the theoretical limits of air density variations during operation in low winds and are comparable to and beyond those theoretical limits at higher wind velocities. At – 9°C and 0°C, narrow bands of power at distinct levels are observed in the stall regime of the turbine; they are typical of many stall phenomena observed on stall-controlled rotors, but these levels have been found to be independent of any parameters recorded.