A review on wind turbine control and its associated methods

Nowadays, the increasing environmental issues especially concerning the global warming have motivated a run for the use of renewable energy sources. Wind energy represents a major player in this context and today it is the most widespread renewable fuel, but still requires many technological improvements. The control of wind turbines (WT5) plays a key role in wind energy applications, ensuring their high efficiency and cost-effectiveness. This has been an intensively researched subject and its developments are crucial to design even better and more efficient wind turbines. However, currently very little papers are addressed to summarize and list wind turbine control concepts. In the present paper, a literature review of wind turbine control is presented dealing with the main wind energy control methods. The main objective of the paper is to form a detailed background to serve as a starting point for new researches on WT control that can be decisive to energetic sustainability. Further, the paper discusses the most recent control developments and their contributions to mitigate environmental issues. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.