The National Small Wind Turbine Centre

In August 2008, the Federal government announced funding for a National Small Wind Turbine Centre (NSWTC) to be operated by the Research Institute of Sustainable Energy (RISE), based at Murdoch University in Perth, Western Australia. The aim of the NSWTC is to promote the small wind turbine (SWT) market and industry in Australia by providing services in the areas of Testing, Standards and Labelling, Professional Development and Training, and Research. This paper summarises the work that has been carried out to date by the NSWTC in the area of Standards and Labelling. Existing certification and labelling schemes for SWTs are summarised and an overview is given of the NSWTC participation in the International Energy Agency (IEA) Task 27, a task aimed at research that will advance standards, improve the quality of SWT testing around the globe and lead to an international consumer label for SWTs. Options for certification and labelling for the emerging Australian SWT industry are analysed and the idea of introducing an Australian consumer label for SWTs is discussed

The small wind turbine field lab

The emerging market of small wind turbines (SWT) is characterised by a large variety of turbine types as well as turbine performance. The abundance of more ‘exotic’ types of vertical axis wind turbines (VAWT) next to the more traditional horizontal axis wind turbines (HAWT) shows that this market is still developing. However, some technologies have proven to possess the same potential typically only found in larger wind turbines. To study the (lack of) performance of current small wind turbine but also to demonstrate their potential, Ghent University decided to launch the Small Wind Turbine Field Lab (SWT Field Lab). This fully scientifically equipped field lab, funded by the Hercules Foundation, offers the possibility to not only monitor the energy yield of the turbine, but also collect information on how to optimise the grid integration, measure mechanical stress and structural strength of turbine components, assess the generator design and tower construction, perform acoustic measurements and finding ways to reduce noise production, even simulate siting of wind turbines, e.g. in rural areas or on industrial parks. All of these parameters are correlated with meteorological data measured on-site. The field lab, based in the inner port of Ostend, provides provisions for placement of up to ten small wind turbines, with seven turbines already partaking in the field trials. The project members aim to use the project results to identify and remove performance limiting factors in the design of small wind turbine, and to demonstrate the feasibility of using small wind turbines for decentralised renewable energy production. With this and similar research projects, the emerging market of small wind turbines can grow beyond its current state of infancy, comparable to the market evolution of large wind turbines

Small Wind Turbine

This system focuses on the usage of electricity at home. Basically, it demonstrates how the electricity can be generated using motor. The implementation of this system is to realize the people especially in the matter of increasing electricity bill per year. This is because the electricity is getting more and more costly and is huge burden to the environment

Small Wind Turbine Starting Behaviour

Small wind turbines that operate in low-wind environments are prone to suffer performance degradation as they often fail to accelerate to a steady, power-producing condition. The behaviour during this process is called “starting behaviour” and it is the subject of this present work. This thesis evaluates potential benefits that can be obtained from the improvement of starting behaviour, investigates, in particular, small wind turbine starting behaviour (both horizontal- and vertical-axis), and presents aerofoil performance characteristics (both steady and unsteady) needed for the analysis. All of the investigations were conducted using a new set of aerodynamic performance data of six aerofoils (NACA0012, SG6043, SD7062, DU06-W-200, S1223, and S1223B). All of the data were obtained at flow conditions that small wind turbine blades have to operate with during the startup - low Reynolds number (from 65000 to 150000), high angle of attack (through 360◦), and high reduced frequency (from 0.05 to 0.20). In order to obtain accurate aerodynamic data at high incidences, a series of CFD simulations were undertaken to illustrate effects of wall proximity and to determine test section sizes that offer minimum proximity effects. A study was carried out on the entire horizontal-axis wind turbine generation system to understand its starting characteristics and to estimate potential benefits of improved starting. Comparisons of three different blade configurations reveal that the use of mixed-aerofoil blades leads to a significant increase in starting capability. The improved starting capability effectively reduces the time that the turbine takes to reach its power-extraction period and, hence, an increase in overall energy yield. The increase can be as high as 40%. Investigations into H-Darriues turbine self-starting capability were made through the analogy between the aerofoil in Darrieus motion and flapping-wing flow mechanisms. The investigations reveal that the unsteadiness associated with the rotor is key to predicting its starting behaviour and the accurate prediction can be made when this transient aerofoil behaviour is correctly modelled. The investigations based upon the analogy also indicate that the unsteadiness can be exploited to promote the turbine ability to self-start. Aerodynamically, this exploitation is related to the rotor geometry itself

The small wind turbine field lab extensive field tests for small wind turbines

This paper describes the research possibilities at the Small Wind Turbine Field Lab and the involved research groups of Ghent University, covering different aspects of a small wind energy system. In contrast to large and medium-sized wind turbines, small wind turbines are still plagued by relatively high production and purchase costs, and low reliability and energy yield. Furthermore, most of them have not been subjected to a field test program. Power-Link, the energy knowledge platform of Ghent University, has for three years operated a modest field test site for small wind turbines, that drew the attention of a lot of manufacturers of small wind turbines. In response, Ghent University decided to launch the Small Wind Turbine Field Lab (SWT Field Lab), to subject small wind turbines to more extensive field tests. Now not only the energy yield is tested, but also topics such as grid integration, structural strength, noise propagation, generator and drive train design and tower construction are studied. All of these parameters are correlated with meteorological data measured on-site

Swift Wind Turbine Testing

Swift wind turbine testing to AWEA small wind turbine test standards

TRANSMISSION SYSTEM IN SMALL WIND TURBINE

Growing energy demand and public awareness on the environmental impact of non-renewable energy source has increase public interest in renewable energy especially wind energy. Nowadays countries like India, Germany, France, Spain, UK, USA and many more are widely using wind energy as an alternative source of power generation [I]. However, in Malaysia, wind energy is not very popular because the wind condition is variable due to the seasonal variation. The maximum wind speed in Malaysia is around 4-5 m/s annually [2]. With the right design of wind turbine, this wind speed is enough to generate power for household in order to reduce the dependency on the conventional power generation. This report is about the design and analysis of transmission system in small wind turbine. The first step is to design the transmission system for small wind turbine. With the right gear ratio, it can increase from low speed shaft into high speed shaft so that it is sufficient for generator to generate electricity. The designed transmission system is then translated into 3D drawing using CATIA V5Rl8 software to create a model for simulation later. ANSYS Workbench simulation software is used to simulate the static structural analysis of the transmission system to determine the equivalent (von-mises) stress, maximum shear stress, total deformation and safety factor. The results gained from the analysis are gathered and analyze to conclude the condition of the transmission system designed. Lastly, some recommendations are included for further study in the future

An aerodynamic analysis of a novel small wind turbine based on impulse turbine principles

This document is the Accepted Manuscript of the following article: Pei Ying, Yong Kang Chen, and Yi Geng Xu, ‘An aerodynamic analysis of a novel small wind turbine based on impulse turbine principles’, Renewable Energy, Vol. 75: 37-43, March 2015, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2014.09.035, made available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License CC BY NC-ND 4.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/The paper presents both a numerical and an experimental approach to study the air flow characteristics of a novel small wind turbine and to predict its performance. The turbine model was generated based on impulse turbine principles in order to be employed in an omni-flow wind energy system in urban areas. The results have shown that the maximum flow velocity behind the stator can be increased by 20% because of a nozzle cascade from the stator geometry. It was also observed that a wind turbine with a 0.3 m rotor diameter achieved the maximum power coefficient of 0.17 at the tip speed ratio of 0.6 under the wind velocity of 8.2 m/s. It was also found that the power coefficient was linked to the hub-to-tip ratio and reached its maximum value when the hub-to-tip ratio was 0.45. It is evident that this new wind turbine has the potential for low working noise and good starting feature compared with a conventional horizontal axis wind turbine.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio