Patent ID: 8102067

Claim:
A method for the operation of a wind energy plant, which comprises a wind velocity measurement device ( 16 ) and a device for the detection of a mechanical load of a component of the wind energy plant, comprising the following steps: measuring a wind velocity with the wind velocity measurement device ( 16 ); detecting a mechanical load of the component of the wind energy plant with the device ( 22 ) for the detection of a mechanical load; assigning an estimated value for the wind velocity using a device ( 24 ) for the determination of an estimated value for a wind velocity, based on the detected mechanical load of the component of the wind energy plant; forwarding the estimated value and the measured wind velocity to a comparison device ( 26 ); and comparing the measured wind velocity with the estimated value using the comparison device for the purpose of plausibility check; wherein said component of the wind energy plant is a nacelle ( 12 ), and wherein said detected mechanical load is determined by detecting an acceleration of the nacelle.