Tales of Wind #3 - Nordex – Static Yaw misalignment

Nordex turbines are notorious for having static Yaw misalignment issues, especially turbine models N131, N149, N163.
An article is available that explores this issue into more detail.

The Static Yaw misalignment comes from an inner parameters of the wind turbine, per default set at 5°, aiming to correct the influence of the rotor on the wind flow captured by the nacelle anemometer. This parameter is never adjusted during commissioning to the real specificities and conditions of the wind farm. Typically, it doesn’t consider either the reality of the wind farm terrain (influence on the wind flow) or the positioning of the nacelle anemometer on the turbine(over a radiator or simply on the nacelle).

The cos3 law defines production losses due to misalignment as follows : a 10° misalignment leads to a 2,6% loss in AEP. For a 10MW wind farm with a 90€/MWh PPA, it corresponds to a 60k€ annual loss.

Greensolver took the opportunity to accompany the wind farm owner into testing two measurement methods for Yaw misalignment on a 4 N149 4MW Wind farm located in the western part of France :

• Nacelle based LIDAR : Laser measurement of the real wind flow in front of the rotor, compared with the nacelle direction
• Software analysis : high frequency measurement (1sec) using OPC server. Tracking of the maximum power point.

→ Both analysis delivered the same result : all wind turbine had a 10° misalignment. The turbine parameters were corrected by the O&M accordingly. A next round of analysis was successfully performed to check the misalignment was indeed corrected.

→ A new analysis as been performed in July 2026 on a 13WT wind farm (N163 5,9 MW) using the Software analysis method proposed by Greensolver

The Software analysis method showed many advantages such as :

– Nonintrusive approach (no loss of production due to installation or hardware failures, no HSE risks linked with installation)

– Scalable : a single analysis can be done jointly on every wind turbine of a given wind farm within 3 to 4 month, whereas the LIDAR analysis must be done on each wind turbine successively.

Greensolver is therefore capable to accompany Nordex asset owner in performing this kind of study with a low cost and effective approach.

Written by Technical and Financial Asset Management Team