Icing is an important issue when operating wind turbines in high altitude or arctic areas as it can cause significant production losses and represent a safety risk. In 2004, a 600 kW Enercon E-40 wind turbine with integrated blade heating was installed on Gütsch mountain, Switzerland, at 2’300 m asl. Coincidentally, a fully equipped test station of the Swiss meteorological network SwissMetNet is situated about 200 m from the wind turbine. The immediate proximity of the two facilities operating under icing conditions led to the launch of the national research project “Alpine Test Site Gütsch” which is embedded in the European “COST Action 727: measuring and forecasting atmospheric icing on structures”. Read more