Soft Yaw Drives for Wind Turbines

Soft yaw drives have many advantages over conventional yaw (azimuth) drives for wind turbines. The need for yaw brakes disappears and the yawing moments generally decrease considerably. The introduction of damping is beneficial for the wind turbine system as a whole and is one way to deal with lateral tower oscillations and blade edge oscillations. Soft yaw drives are available as packages composed from standard components, which is beneficial for the life cycle cost of the wind turbine system, and have been certified by the main certification bodies.