Apparatuses and methods are disclosed for the wind
turbine yaw control. A wind
turbine bedplate is rotateably mounted on a stationary
tower. The bedplate is connected to a
yaw encoder, which provides angular position of the bedplate with respect to the stationary
tower. A wind vane, which can be attached to the bedplate, is connected to a wind vane
encoder. The
yaw encoder and wind vane encoder send data to a
turbine controller. When the bedplate orientation differs from the average
wind direction by a predetermined amount, a yaw
brake that keeps the bedplate in place is released in a controllable fashion, such that some amount of friction between the
brake pads and the stationary disk remains. Consequently, the bedplate will controllably rotate to align itself with the newly established average wind vector, thus aligning the
turbine blade rotation plane substantially perpendicularly against the average wind vector. When the bedplate arrives to its new position, as determined by the yaw encoder reading, the yaw
brake can be fully applied again to fix the bedplate at its new position.