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EmergingSmallWind
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WorkingPaperNo7(2008)
EmergingSmallWindTechnology
Contents
Small scale renewables ...................................................................................................................... 1
Small wind versus solar panels................................................................................................... 3
Types of Small Wind Turbines ......................................................................................................... 5
Application areas .............................................................................................................................. 6
Main designs of small wind turbines ......................................................................................... 7
Main technical limitations of existing small wind turbines ............................................... 9
Emerging small wind technology.................................................................................................. 12
Magnus effect................................................................................................................................... 12
Magnus type wind turbine........................................................................................................... 16
Review: Patents on Magnus type wind turbine....................................................................... 17
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Cipcigan L.M., Taylor P.C., Trichakis P. Potential for Microgeneration Study and Analysis. Final Report. 2005
WorkingPaperNo7(2008)
EmergingSmallWindTechnology
Pay-back
period2
Solar
photovoltaic
panels3
6 to 12 years
for businesses
Small wind
turbines4
6 to 12 years
for businesses
[Euro
cents per
kWh]
Resource availability
25-65
4-12
6 to 22 years
for residential
installations
8 to 16 years
for residential
installations
6-15
5-15
The figures reflect net-metering systems displacing energy that would otherwise be purchased from a utility
company. The actual payback period depends on resource availability at the site, system efficiency and utility
rates. Not taking into account the ongoing incentive programms.
Marcel ri, Thomas A. Hulda, Ewan D. Dunlopa, Heinz A. Ossenbrinka. Potential of solar electricity generation in
the European Union member states and candidate countries. Solar Energy. Volume 81, Issue 10, October 2007,
Pages 1295-1305
Wind Energy THE FACTS an analysis of wind energy in the EU-25. 2004
WorkingPaperNo7(2008)
EmergingSmallWindTechnology
industries (with high energy consumption processes) and other (urban settings,
off-grid battery systems remote homed, telecom, marine). All technologies are
site specific due to the nature of resources, especially hydropower (it mostly used
for electrification of isolated sites).
PV growth during last years was mainly driven by government incentives. Although
it is generally recognised that grant support cannot be a long term mechanism
(cost effectiveness is not predicted to occur until 2030, however, a technology
breakthrough could reduce capital costs and bring this forward towards 2020),
when the break-even for small wind is predicted circa 2010 2015, Figure 1.
Figure 1: Energy cost: domestic small wind (EEE - Energy Export Equivalence)1
Table 2) than PV. Unlike PV's, which stay at basically the same cost per watt
independent of array size, wind turbines get less expensive with increasing system
size. The cost of regulators and controls is essentially the same for PV and wind.
Somewhat surprisingly, the cost of towers for the wind turbines is about the same
as the cost of equivalent PV racks and trackers. The cost of wiring is usually higher
for PV systems because of the large number of connections. A typical home
consumes between 800-2,000 kWh of electricity per month and a 4-10 kW wind
WorkingPaperNo7(2008)
EmergingSmallWindTechnology
turbine or PV system is about the right size to meet this demand. At this size wind
turbines are much less expensive.
Generated power
(need)
1-25 kW
100kW-1MW
Farms
10-400kW
Industries
(high
processes).
energy
consumption
10-400 kW
0.1-60kW
Horizontal axis wind turbines (HAWT): in these models the shaft is parallel
to the ground. Although they must self-align with the wind, HAWTs are
mechanically simple and require a relatively small footprint on the ground
to mount and secure the tower. The majority of small and large turbines
installed today are HAWTs.
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EmergingSmallWindTechnology
Cycloturbine
Figure 2: Schematic views of different turbine concepts
Application areas
Small turbines were used mainly for remote power generation either alone or in
conjunction with other energy sources and battery storage with presently emerging
target to enter the urban or industrial areas. They can be divided into three
categories: micro (up to 1 kW), mid-range (1-10kW) and mini-turbines (10-50kW).
Typical applications are presented in
Table 3.
2008 The Applied Research Institute for Prospective Technologies
WorkingPaperNo7(2008)
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Commercial, institutional,
farms, and remote
communities
Typical Power
Rating
1 kW
1-10 kW
Typical Grid
Connectivity
On-grid, Isolated-grid, or
off-grid
Typical
Applications
On-grid or isolated-grid
recreational vehicles,
etc.)
Seasonal applications
Entitlement
Larger cottages or
hunting lodges with
significant share of
electricity from wind
large farms
On- or off-grid
commercial or
institutional buildings
Isolated-grid
communities where
wind is complemented
by diesel generators
and/or other sources
Electric fencing
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Power control via aerodynamic control (stall control) or variable pitch blades
(pitch control);
Orientation by self aligning action (free yaw), or direct control (active yaw);
The most common small wind turbines in 10-50 kW category are 3-bladed,
horizontal axis, up-wind machines with many designs available, having their own
unique advantages and disadvantages. While most of these turbines employ directdrive permanent magnet alternators, some use asynchronous induction generators
and gearboxes (placed in the nacelle assembled with the rotor). Different electrical
controls and power conditioning equipment packages are available depending on
whether the turbines are intended for stand-alone battery charging or for gridconnected applications. Most of these wind turbines are variable speed machines
that employ passive stall regulation and furling for overspeed control, although
some use electrical controls to slow down the generator rotor. No turbines in this
size range are known to use active (i.e. motorized) pitch control. Typical rotor
diameters for these turbines range from 5 to 15 m while tower heights are usually
2008 The Applied Research Institute for Prospective Technologies
WorkingPaperNo7(2008)
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(a)
(b)
Figure 4: (a) Theoretical power production for small wind turbines when
the wind speed is 10 m/s; (b) Wind speeds increase with height6
The wind turbine rotor is the most complicated, important and almost always
the only component unique in the wind turbines system. The rotor's blades
control all the energy capture and almost all the loads, and are therefore a
primary target of R&D efforts. The challenge is to create the knowledge and
engineering tools that enable blade designers to squeeze the most
performance throughout a range of wind speeds sites that previously were
considered as not cost effective.
Power coefficient dependence form the wind speed (Figure 5) is also a very
limiting parameter of the overall performance and cost-efficiency of wind
turbine.
S. Clarke - Engineer, Rural Environment/OMAFRA. Electricity Generation Using Small Wind Turbines At Your
Home Or Farm. 2003
10
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0.20
10
15
20
m/s
Low efficiency of wind turbines in low speed wind sites leads to higher cost
of energy generation (and longer pay-back period), Figure 6.7 The average
annual wind speed is 4-4.5 m/s with wind resources level at 50 m above
ground varying and depending on topographic conditions (5-9 m/s in open
area, 7-11.5 hills and ridges; 2-6 sheltered terrain - Weibull distribution).8
Hence, quite a big share of time the wind turbine would operate not at the
rate wind speed and with low power coefficient.
Figure 6: Calculated costs per kWh wind power as a function of the wind
regime at the chosen site (number of full load hours)
http://www.windpower.org/en/tour/wres/euromap.htm
11
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Very few small wind turbines have any blade pitch adjustment which means
that they commonly experience very large angles of attack leading to slow
rotor acceleration. Passive control of turbine performance: passive control
(furling or stalling) leads to a lower share of the energy in the wind will be
running through the rotor area, hence this additionally limits the overall
turbine efficiency.
Blade rotational speed typically increases with decreasing size which results
in the blade loading being dominated by centrifugal forces. Furthermore, the
small blades can be difficult to make with high tolerances. When designing a
wind turbine it is extremely important to calculate in advance how the
different components will vibrate, both individually, and jointly. It is also
important to calculate the forces involved in each bending or stretching of a
component. Therefore the reliability and maintenance of the system are very
important parameters, as the average annual maintenance costs of the
typical wind turbine is around 2% of the original turbine investment, pushing
up the costs of generated kWh.
Sound pressure will increase with the fifth power of the speed of the blades
relative to the surrounding air. The fast rotation common for small wind
turbines generate noise pollution and what is much worse infrasound
vibrations (both affecting public health), what makes their sitting complex
and highly inhibits penetration of the urban and industrial areas. Undesirable
flickering is also mostly dependent on speed of rotor rotation.
Big challenge with wind turbines has always been to convert a highly
variable input the wind impinging on the rotor into a rock-steady
alternating current output suitable for grid connection. Present, for the large
turbines, the answer is to regulate blade pitch and power off-take so that
the generator works at fixed speed in synchronism with the grid. But this is
a waste available wind energy, and there is a need for variable speed drives
when the generator/ turbine is allowed to be driven at varying speed, in line
with the wind, and power electronics are used to render the alternating
current output of the generator to direct current without efficiency losses.
12
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of Magnus effect, side-force effect of the rotating bodies was noticed first time by
an eminent English scientist Benjamin Roberts in 1742 during his investigations of
spinning artillery projectiles using the swirling arm device. In the century later,
German scientist Gustav Magnus explained this phenomenon as an aerodynamic
effect. Further contribution came from Prandtl and his modification of KuttaJukowski theorem for bodies of rotation. Applied to aeronautics in experimental
wingforms, the Magnus Theory states that if air is directed against smooth,
revolving cylinder, whose circumferential speed is greater than that of the air
current, a force is directed against one side of the cylinder - air compressed on one
side and vacuum formed on the other - creating lift (Figure 7).
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Figure 8: Inviscid irrotational flow past a rotating cylinder for (a) zero, (b)
subcritical, (c) critical and (d) supercritical rotation rates9
The maximum lift a rotating cylinder experiences when the rotation rate is
increased beyond a critical limit. This can be readily explained with the help of
Figure 8. If one defines a nondimensional rotation rate by = *D/2U, where
the cylinder of diameter D rotates at * while being placed in a uniform stream of
velocity U, then one can define a non-dimensional number, called the Reynolds
number, by Re = UD/ for this flow field. In Figure 8 a, the steady inviscid
irrotational flow field is depicted when the cylinder does not rotate and one can
note a top-down and fore-aft symmetry of the flow field. In Figure 8 b, a case is
depicted for < 2, where both the front and rear stagnation points (halfsaddle
points) are deflected downwards, causing the flow to exert an upward force on the
cylinder. With increase of to 2, these stagnation points move towards each other
and merge at the lowermost point on the cylinder, as shown in Figure 8 c. For this
location of stagnation point, it is easy to show that the corresponding
nondimensional lift value is given by the coefficient CLmax = 4. Prandtl
heuristically reasoned this lift as maximum, because with further increase in , the
half-saddle point of Figure 8 c would move in the flow as a full saddle-point on a
closed streamline that demarcates the flow field into two parts, as shown in Figure
Tapan K. Sengupta and Srikanth B. Talla. RobinsMagnus effect: A continuing saga. CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL.
86, NO. 7, 10 APRIL 2004
14
WorkingPaperNo7(2008)
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8 d. The region inside the closed streamline is insulated from the region outside
permanently for steady inviscid flow. This fixes the vorticity at the critical rotation
rate for the case of Figure 8 c. In a real flow, vorticity created at the solid wall is
convected and diffused according to the governing NavierStokes equation. A
steady flow model, presupposes equilibrium between the creation of vorticity and
its viscous diffusion for all rotation rates. It was argued by Prandtl that the
equilibrium at = 2, decides the lift value when the rotation rate is increased
further. This model appeared realistic in the absence of any counter-examples and
is used in textbooks to explain lift generation and limiting mechanism. However,
some recent experimental and numerical observations provide counter-examples
where lift is found to exceed Prandtls maximum (810). Tokumaru and Dimotakis
have observed that the maximum lift limit was violated by 20% for Re = 3800 and
= 10. The authors considered diffusion, unsteady flow processes as the main
contributor in violating the maximum limit, while three-dimensional end-effects will
tend to reduce the mean spanwise lift. For > 2, the vorticity will be generated at
a larger rate at the solid wall than it is dissipated by viscous action, thereby
showing a monotonic increase in lift value, if the vorticity remains confined within
the recirculating streamline. The role of diffusion is thus to peg the net circulation
at a lower level. However, the viscous diffusion also plays a subtle role in
supporting enhanced lift when it interferes with physical instability processes. This
is clearly seen in computations that use excessive numerical dissipation to stabilize
computations. It should be noted that for super-critical rotation rates,
threedimensionality of the flow is suppressed due to Coriolis force predominating
over convection and viscous diffusion. Thus, it is instructive to compute the flow by
solving time dependent two-dimensional NavierStokes equation. The numerical
results apart from validating experimental observation, also provide detailed time
accurate account of the physical events, that is otherwise difficult to track
experimentally. In doing so, the computational results also revealed a new physical
instability that limits the monotonically increasing lift in an aperiodic manner.
The experimental observations for this flow are visual: in one case for the
instability and uses an analytical model in the other case to arrive at the supposed
violation of maximum lift. In contrast, the computational evidences are based on
the full governing equations and show the instability and violation of maximum lift
at high Reynolds number and high rotation rates, simultaneously. The physical
instabilities in real flows are triggered by ambient noise. It shows the need to
study and develop models for the actual background noise that is present in
experiments. A realistic noise model with very high accuracy computational
algorithms that preserves fundamental physical principles would provide
conclusive evidence of this and many other problems of instabilities.
15
WorkingPaperNo7(2008)
EmergingSmallWindTechnology
Figure 9: Magnus wind turbine: rotating cylinders (1), end plates (2), rotor body
(3), tower (4), F is the rotor driving force10
Magnus type wind turbines can overcome most of limitations of traditional blade
turbines which are presently in use. The major of them is their low efficiency at the
most repeatable wind velocities V < 6 to 7 m/s that is due to small lift coefficient
of a blade. Under such conditions, the power coefficient of wind turbines drops
rapidly to zero at about V = 4 m/s (Figure 5). On the other hand, the Magnus wind
turbines can be exploited in a wide range of wind velocities, that is, from 2 to 40
m/s instead of 5 to 25 m/s acceptable for the blade turbines. A reduced rotation
velocity of the Magnus cylinder-rotor which is 2 3 times lower comparing to the
blade one ensures its high ecological and operational safety. Also, an advantage of
the Magnus wind turbine is aerodynamic self-regulation of the cylinder-rotor
rotation preventing from its excessive spinup and destruction due to centrifugal
forces. In particular, at wind velocities higher than about 35 m/s, the selfregulation results in diminution of the Magnus force with the cylinder-rotor selfbraking.
10
N.M. Bychkov, A.V. Dovgal, V.V Kozlov. Magnus wind turbines as an alternative to the blade ones. Journal of
Physics: Conference Series 75 (2007) 012004
16
WorkingPaperNo7(2008)
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Date
Issued
WO/2007/017930
2008TheAppliedResearchInstituteforProspectiveTechnologies
Short description
A Magnus type wind power
generator (A) comprising a
horizontal rotary shaft (3) for
transmitting torque to a power
generating
mechanism
(2),
rotary column (5) disposed
radially of the horizontal rotary
shaft, driving motors (15) for
rotatively driving the respective
action between rotation of each
rotary column and wind produces Magnus lift, which rotates
the horizontal rotary shaft so as to drive power generation
mechanism, wherein an air flow means (6) is installed for
producing air flows on the outer peripheral surfaces of rotary
columns so as to increase the Magnus lift.
17
WorkingPaperNo7(2008)
EmergingSmallWindTechnology
Magnus effect
horizontal axis
wind turbine
Wind generator
using Magnuseffects
US6.375.424 B1
16 June
2004
EP0886728
WO 02/42640 A1
David Terracina
(Italy)
2008TheAppliedResearchInstituteforProspectiveTechnologies
30 May
2002
18
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Motor
JP19980317602
19981109
Kawai Hiroyoshi
(Japan)
2008TheAppliedResearchInstituteforProspectiveTechnologies
26 May
2000
To
improve
the
power
generation efficiency without
an intense flow by arranging a
means for increasing the flow
velocity or a flow rate of fluid
butting a rotor in a motor
including the rotor rotated by
receiving the fluid and a
generator
converting
the
rotating force of the rotary
vane into an electric energy.
When an introduced wind is
blown in from a take-in
window in front of a take-in
box, a fan 2 is rotated and the shaft of the fan 2 penetrated
through a partition board 18 and connected to a drum 1
rotates a hollow drum 1. When the introduction wind is blown
from the take-in window in front of the take-in box 8, it acts on
the rotating drum 1 to accelerate the flow velocity of the
introduction wind in the lower part of the drum 1 by Magnus
effect and causes a pressure reducing phenomenon. On the
other hand, a suction wind is energetically sucked from a
bottom suction hole in the bottom of the take-in box 8 to blow
therethrough as an exhaust wind. The suction wind applies a
rotating force to a rotor in the entrance of the suction wind
duct linked with the bottom of the take-in box 8 and converts
it into an electric energy by the interlinked motor.
19
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Thomas F. Hanson
(US)
2008TheAppliedResearchInstituteforProspectiveTechnologies
28
December
1982
WorkingPaperNo7(2008)
EmergingSmallWindTechnology
2008TheAppliedResearchInstituteforProspectiveTechnologies
21