By the end of 1987, there were more than 16,500 commercial wind turbines installed in the United States. In many cases, the performance and reliability of these machines have been below expectations. Recent studies sponsored by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and the Solar Energy Research Institute (SERI) have examined various aspects of the wind power industry experience. One of the tasks in these studies was to characterize what has been learned about the state of the art in wind power engineering in terms of the state of knowledge and application of standard engineering practice in wind turbine design. A description of the level of understanding and application of wind turbine engineering was developed by examining the performance and failure history of wind turbines from 1981 through 1987 and by conducting interviews with wind industry personel. Based on the information gathered, performance shortfalls and failure causes were identified and categorized. Estimates were made of the reliability and economic impact of the problems. Finally, an assessment was made of the how the state of knowledge and level of application of standard engineering practice in wind turbine engineering today were related to the problems.
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