Design of a micro wind turbine and its economic feasibility study for residential power generation in built-up areas. (February 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Loganathan, Bavin; Chowdhury, Harun; Mustary, Israt; Rana, Md Masud; Alam, Firoz
• Is Part Of: Energy procedia. Volume 160(2019)
• Page Start: 812
• Page End: 819
• Publication Date: 2019-02
• Subjects: vertical axis wind turbine -- wind tunnel -- power -- torque -- built-up area -- feasibility study; Power resources -- Congresses; Power resources -- Periodicals; Power resources; Conference proceedings; Periodicals; 333.7905
• DOI: 10.1016/j.egypro.2019.02.153
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1876-6102

Abstract

Abstract: To provide an alternative to the fossil fuels, finding innovative engineering design in utilizing the renewable energy sources are paramount. Although there are abundant of wind energy available in the built-up areas, the application of wind turbines to harness power efficiently is very limited. Apart from rooftop solar panel for residential power generation, a vertical axis wind turbine can also be used to supplement the domestic power demand due to its low-wind operational capability. Despite of several commercially available small turbines, no study has been reported on their effectiveness in built-up areas. Therefore, the primary objective of this study is to develop a single stage drag-based multi-blade small vertical axis wind turbine and analyse its economic aspect for implementation in the metropolitan built-up areas in Australia. Study indicates that one turbine with diameter and height of 322 m and 153 m and blade diameter of 41 m will provide the 1.6 kW power required to supplement 10% of the power requirement. However, it is impractical to design such a large turbine. A practical turbine in terms of size and cost is a turbine of diameter and height of 2.4 m and 1.2 m with a blade radius of 0.32 m which can produce 10 W of power and cost around A$ 767.30. An optimal system would be a hybrid system of solar PV panels and a couple of wind turbines where PV panels producing 90-100% of the power requirement. Wind turbines should be used to supplement the power demand during windy days.