WIND ENERGY

CONSERVATION
SYSTEM
History
The first electricity generating wind turbine, was a
battery charging machine installed in July 1887 by Scottish
academic, James Blyth to light his holiday home in
Marykirk, Scotland. Some months later American
inventor Charles F Brush built the first automatically
operated wind turbine for electricity production
in Cleveland, Ohio. Although Blyth's turbine was
considered uneconomical in the United Kingdom electricity
generation by wind turbines was more cost effective in
countries with widely scattered populations. In Denmark by
1900, there were about 2500 windmills for mechanical loads
such as pumps and mills, producing an estimate combined
peak power of about 30 MW.
 The first automatically operated wind turbine, built in Cleveland
in 1887 by Charles F. Brush. It was 60 feet (18 m) tall, weighed 4
tons (3.6 metric tonnes) and powered a 12kW generator.
 The largest machines were on 24-metre (79 ft)
towers with four-bladed 23-metre (75 ft) diameter
rotors. By 1908 there were 72 wind-driven electric
generators operating in the US from 5 kW to 25 kW.
Around the time of World War I, American windmill
makers were producing 100,000 farm windmills
each year, mostly for water-pumping. By the 1930s,
windmills for electricity were common on farms,
mostly in the United States where distribution
systems had not yet been installed. In this period,
high-tensile steel was cheap, and windmills were
placed atop prefabricated open steel lattice towers
Types

 Horizontal axis wind turbine

 Vertical axis wind turbine
Horizontal
Vertical
Horizontal axis

Horizontal-axis wind turbines (HAWT) have the main rotor

shaft and electrical generator at the top of a tower, and must be
pointed into the wind. Small turbines are pointed by a simple
wind vane , while large turbines generally use a wind sensor
coupled with a servo motor . Most have a gearbox, which turns
the slow rotation of the blades into a quicker rotation that is
more suitable to drive an electrical generator.
 Since a tower produces turbulence behind it,
the turbine is usually positioned upwind of its
supporting tower. Turbine blades are made stiff to
prevent the blades from being pushed into the
tower by high winds. Additionally, the blades are
placed a considerable distance in front of the
tower and are sometimes tilted forward into the
wind a small amount.
Downwind machines have been built, despite
the problem of turbulence (mast wake), because
they don't need an additional mechanism for
keeping them in line with the wind, and because
in high winds the blades can be allowed to bend
which reduces their swept area and thus their
wind resistance. Since cyclical (that is repetitive)
turbulence may lead to fatigue failures, most
HAWTs are of upwind design.
Vertical axis

Vertical-axis wind turbines (or VAWTs) have the main

rotor shaft arranged vertically. Key advantages of this
arrangement are that the turbine does not need to be
pointed into the wind to be effective. This is an advantage
on sites where the wind direction is highly variable, for
example when integrated into buildings. The key
disadvantages include the low rotational speed with the
consequential higher torque and hence higher cost of the
drive train, the inherently lower power coefficienc, the 360
degree rotation of the aerofoil within the wind flow during
each cycle and hence the highly dynamic loading on the
blade, the pulsating torque generated by some rotor
designs on the drive train, and the difficulty of modelling
the wind flow accurately and hence the challenges of
analysing and designing the rotor prior to fabricating a
prototype.
 With a vertical axis, the generator and gearbox can be
placed near the ground, hence avoiding the need of a tower
and improving accessibilty for maintenance. Drawbacks of
this configuration include (i) wind speeds are lower close to
the ground, so less wind energy is available for a given size
turbine, and (ii) wind shear is more severe close to the
ground, so the rotor experiences higher loads. Air flow near
the ground and other objects can create turbulent flow,
which can introduce problems associated with vibration,
such as noise and bearing wear which may increase the
maintenance or shorten the service life. However, when a
turbine is mounted on a rooftop, the building generally
redirects wind over the roof and this can double the wind
speed at the turbine. If the height of the rooftop mounted
turbine tower is approximately 50% of the building height,
this is near the optimum for maximum wind energy and
minimum wind turbulence. It should be borne in mind that
wind speeds within the built environment are generally
much lower than at exposed rural sites.
Modern wind turbines

Turbines used in wind farms for commercial

production of electric power are usually three-bladed
and pointed into the wind by computer-controlled
motors. These have high tip speeds of over
320 kilometres per hour (200 mph), high efficiency,
and low torque ripple, which contribute to good
reliability. The tubular steel towers range from 60 to 90
metres (200 to 300 ft) tall. The blades rotate at 10-22
revolutions per minute. At 22 rotations per minute the
tip speed exceeds 300 feet per second (91 m/s).
 A gear box is commonly used for stepping
up the speed of the generator, although
designs may also use direct drive of an
annular generator. Some models operate at
constant speed, but more energy can be
collected by variable-speed turbines which
use a solid-state power converter to interface
to the transmission system. All turbines are
equipped with protective features to avoid
damage at high wind speeds, by feathering the
blades into the wind which ceases their
rotation, supplemented by brakes.
Turbine design and construction

Wind turbines are designed to

exploit the wind energy that exists at
a location. Aerodinamic modeling is
used to determine the optimum tower
height, control systems, number of
blades and blade shape.
Wind turbines convert wind energy
to electricity for distribution.
Conventional horizontal axis turbines
can be divided into three
components.
first component

The rotor component, which is approximately 20% of the wind

turbine cost, includes the blades for converting wind energy to
low speed rotational energy.
Second component

The generator component, which is

approximately 34% of the wind
turbine cost, includes the eletrical
generator, the control electronics, and
most likely a gearbox (e.g. planetary
gearbox, adiustable-speed
drive or contionusly variable
transmission) component for
converting the low speed incoming
rotation to high speed rotation
suitable for generating electricity.
Third component

The structural support component,

which is approximately 15% of the wind
turbine cost, includes the tower and rotor
yaw mechanism.
 A 1.5 MW wind turbine of a type
frequently seen in the United States has a
tower 80 meters high. The rotor assembly
(blades and hub) weighs 48,000 pounds
(22,000 kg). The nacelle, which contains
the generator component, weighs
115,000 pounds (52,000 kg). The concrete
base for the tower is constructed using
58,000 pounds (26,000 kg) of reinforcing
steel and contains 250 cubic yards of
concrete. The base is 50 feet (15 m) in
diameter and 8 feet (2.4 m) thick near the
center.
 Interesting

Largest capacity

The Enercon E-126 has a rated capacity of 7.58 MW, has an

overall height of 198 m (650 ft), a diameter of 126 m (413 ft), and is
the world's largest-capacity wind turbine since its introduction in
2007.
Tallest Wind Turbine

The tallest wind turbine is Fuhrländer Wind Turbine Laasow. Its

axis is 160 meters above ground and its rotor tips can reach a
height of 205 meters. It is the only wind turbine in the world taller
than 200 meters.
Wind Turbine Components
Turbine has the basic components
• Tower structure
• Rotor with two or three blades attached to the hub
• Shaft with mechanical gear
• Electrical generator
• Yaw mechanism, such as the tail vane
• Sensors and control
One or more of the following additional components:
• Anemometers - to measure the wind speed and transmit the data to
the controller.
• Voltage/Current/torque/speed sensors - to monitor and regulate
various mechanical and electrical parameters.
• Power electronics - to convert and condition power to the required
standards.
• Control electronics, usually incorporating a computer/
microcontroller.
• Battery for improving load availability in a stand-alone plant.
• Transmission link for connecting the plant to the area grid.

Tower
supports the rotor and the nacelle containing the mechanical gear,
the electrical generator, the yaw mechanism, and the stall control.
• Tubular steel structures
• Lattice structures
-Resonant frequency of the tower, rotor, nacelle should not
match the fluctuations due to wind
BLADES
Modern wind turbines have two or three blades
Single-bladed wind turbine has the advantage of saving the cost
of one rotor blade and its weight; it also runs much faster.
However, it is not widespread commercially due to the difficulties
of balancing the rotor, It is also likely to generate a supersonic tip
speed and a highly pulsating torque and causing excessive
vibrations.
Besides of the higher rotational speed, the noise, and visual
intrusion problems, these turbines also require a counterweight to
be placed on the other side of the hub from the blade in order to
balance the rotor. This obviously negates the savings on weight
compared to a two-bladed design.