Sizing and Topologyof a small-scale
Sustainable Wind Energy Capture and Storage
System
H. Jagau, Student Member, IEEE,M. A. Khan, Member, IEEE and P. S. Barendse, Member, IEEE
AbstractThis paper presents a design approach for a
sustainable wind energy capture and storage system (WECSS)
for low power application. Sustainability is only achieved when
the entire system, i.e. energy source, materials used and the
manufacturing process, is done in a sustainable manner. By
regarding sustainability as the most important factor, the design
approach of the individual components of the WECSS is
presented next. The generator is directly coupled to a wind
turbine, its output rectified and boosted to a desired DC voltage
level, which supplies a DC-load directly. A bidirectional DC-DC
converter links the DC-bus with a brushless DC (BLDC) motor,
which finally turns a flywheel. A methodology for the sizing and
design procedure of the individual components is presented next.
The design approach incorporates a detailed discussion of three
operation points of the WECSS, i.e. maximum wind speed, cut-in
wind speed and absolute minimum wind speed at which the load
demand is met. Furthermore, a typical load profile of a rural or
impoverished urban household is developed and by linking it
with the calculated operation points, the operation limits of the
sustainable system are calculated
Index Terms Renewable Energy, Green and Blue Economy,
Sustainability, Recycling, Wind Energy
I. INTRODUCTION
S OUTH Africa is currently one of the most economically
divided countries in the world. On the one end of society,
people can afford to live in developed suburbs and enjoy
amenities similar to those in first world countries. In contrast,
36% (when using the expanded definition, accounting for the
discouraged workers) of its population is unemployed and
amongst this group there are people that live in
immensepoverty [1]. These people lack access to basic
amenities, which include: sanitation, clean water and
electricity. Today, around 2 billion people lack access to
electricity worldwide. In South Africa, about 30% of its
population has no access to electricity [2]. Unelectrified areas
are usually far away from the grid, or located in mountainous
areas, which may not be economically viable to reach.
Renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar energy,
H. Jagau is with University of Cape Town, Electrical Engineering, Private
Bag X3 Rondebosch 7701, (e-mail: hartmut_jagau@gmx.net).
M .A. Khan is with University of Cape Town, Electrical Engineering, Private
Bag X3 Rondebosch 7701, (e-mail: azeem.khan@uct.ac.za).
P. Barendse is with University of Cape Town, Electrical Engineering,
Private Bag X3 Rondebosch 7701, (e-mail: paul.barendse@uct.ac.za).
978-1-4673-0142-8/12/$26.00 2012 IEEE
have the potential to deliver affordable electricity to such
areas. However, conventional renewable energy solutions are
still very expensive. Consequently, cheaper renewable energy
solutions need to be explored, which can generate small
amounts of electricity in these locations.
In contrary to the many shortages the modern world is
experiencing today, waste is being produced and accumulated
at a tremendous rate. Furthermore, as a consequence of the
ever increasing need for new, smaller, and faster technology,
electrical and electronic waste (e-waste) is now one of the
fastest growing waste streams in the world. E-waste is
hazardous and loaded with contaminants that are toxic to the
environment. Greenpeace estimates that 20-50 million tons of
e-waste is discarded globally every year, which makes up 5%
of all municipal solid waste worldwide [3]. According to the
US Environmental Protection Agency, discarded electronics in
the US totaled about 2 million tons in 2005 [3]. It is estimated
that only about 15-20% of this was recycled [3]. The e-waste
Association of South Africa (eWASA) estimates that between
1.1 and 2.1 million tons of potential e-waste is available for
recycling in South Africa annually [4]. A need therefore exists
to provide innovative solutions to these unique problems faced
in South Africa and other developing countries. This paper
proposes a small-scale system that can capture and store
electricity in a sustainable manner, whilst also addressing the
aforementioned challenges of e-waste. In particular, the
topology and sizing methodology of the system is discussed in
detail.
II. SUSTAINABLE DESIGN OF A WIND ENERGY
CONVERSION SYSTEM
Sustainability can be summarized by the well known three
Rs: reduce, reuse and recycle. By reducing the worlds energy
consumption, by reusing materials in components, and by
recycling broken or unusable components, a sustainable
society can be realized. The concept of a Green Economy is
summarized succinctly by Gunter Pauli in his book: The blue
economy [5]. He argues that many green products have
become a luxury commodity, since they are more expensive
than regular products. Effort therefore needs to be made to
ensure the affordability of green products. This can be
achieved by imitating the cascading principle of ecosystems,
in which the output of one process becomes the input of
another process [5]. Sustainability can therefore only be
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achieved when the entire system, i.e. energy source, materials
used and the manufacturing process is done is a sustainable
manner. Thus, great care needs to be taken when choosing the
components and the materials of the system.
The sustainable wind energy system presented in this paper
contributes to the aforementioned challenges in two major
ways. Firstly, it proposes a low cost electricity generation and
storage solution for the electrification of rural and Fig. 1: Overall system topology and power flow
impoverished areas prevalent in most developing countries.
Secondly, it addresses the challenge of dealing with the huge
amount of e-waste that is produced and dumped daily, by
proposing a sustainable topology, which reuses and recycles e-
waste. Thus, the proposed system has a double green effect,
since it reuses e-waste to generate electricity from the
abundantly available wind.
Besides the huge amount of e-waste produced annually,
Chinas recent actions to monopolize the supply of rare earth Fig. 2: Detailed block diagram of sustainable WECSS
materials, creates a new and unforeseen uncertainty about the
future supply of permanent magnets (PMs) for the wind The alternating output voltage of the permanent magnet
energy industry. Thus, the reuse and recycling of PM materials synchronous generator (PMSG) is first rectified via a full-
as proposed in this paper will become even more necessary bridge diode rectifier. A DC-DC converter then boosts the
than ever before. rectifier output voltage to a desired DC bus voltage, which
supplies a DC load directly. Excess energy, which is not
III. TOPOLOGY, COMPONENTS AND MATERIALS OF consumed by the load, is fed to the flywheel by means of the
SUSTAINABLE WECS bi-directional DC-DC converter and a brushless DC (BLDC)
machine that turns the flywheel. If a deficit of energy occurs
This section proposes the topology for a sustainable small-
in the system, the flywheel supplies the load with the extra
scale WECS, describes the individual components of the
energy required. This ensures that maximum energy is being
system and discusses alternative sustainable materials for the
captured by the wind turbine and that the stored energy in the
individual components of the system.
flywheel is made available for use by the load. In order for the
A. Topology and Components flywheel to store and to provide electrical energy, the BLDC
Renewable energy sources such as wind require energy machine can either operate as a motor (energy flowing from
storage, since the source of energy is intermittent. the wind generator to the flywheel) or as a generator (energy
Conventional small-scale WECS mostly use electrochemical flowing from flywheel to load). A system controller controls
lead-acid batteries. However, these are potentially toxic for the DC-DC converters, the BLDC and manages the power
human beings, detrimental to the environment, require high flow in the system.
maintenance, have limited charge/discharge cycles and have B. Wind Turbine
low charge/discharge efficiencies. On the other hand,
The wind turbine converts the kinetic energy in the wind
electromechanical batteries such as flywheels are
into mechanical energy. The wind turbine considered for the
environmentally friendly, require minimal maintenance, have
sustainable system is a horizontal axis wind turbine (HAWT),
high charge/discharge cycles capability and moderate
and is chosen over a vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT) due to
charge/discharge efficiencies. A flywheel energy storage
its higher efficiency and higher tip speed ratio, which leads to
device can furthermore be built in a sustainable manner from
a higher rotational speed at the shaft. High rotational speeds
reused and recycled components.
are preferred since the efficiency of the generator increases
The sustainable WECS presented in this paper has a
with speed. A sustainable wind turbine can be built from the
generator coupled directly to a wind turbine. The generated
following sustainable materials: wood, discarded drums
electrical energy is either consumed in a load or stored in an
(plastic or steel) and PVC piping. A sustainable VAWT built
electromechanical flywheel energy storage device. Small, low-
from discarded 200l steel drums is shown in Fig. 3(a) and Fig.
cost WECSs are typically used in battery charging
3(b)shows a sustainable HAWT made from discarded PVC
applications, where the generator is connected directly to the
piping. For home-built systems, the turbine blades are mostly
battery by means of a diode-bridge rectifier [6]. A flywheel as
built from PVC piping, since they can relatively easily be cut
energy storage device in the system requires a controller to
and shaped into a blade profile and are easy to source. Hence,
manage the overall power flow of the system [7][8]. Fig. 1
the envisaged turbine topology will be built from discarded
shows the overall system topology and power flow and a
PVC piping.
detailed block diagram of the proposed sustainable WECS is
shown in Fig. 2.

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 (a) (b)
Fig. 5: Degaussing coil in CRTs
Fig. 3: Home-built wind turbines: (a) VAWT made from
m old 200l drums; (b)
HAWT made from PVC piping
D. Flywheel
C. Generator and Motor A flywheel consists of a rotating mass, which stores energy
In essence only two components are neeeded to generate in the form of kinetic energy (KE E). The amount of energy
electricity, that is an electromagnetic field and an electrical stored in a flywheel is given by:
conductor, which cuts through the field. PMss used in speakers
1
and HDDs, produce an electromagnetic fieldd and are suitable (1)
components for a sustainable wind generattor. The magnets 2
found in HDDs are made from high energy ddensity rare-earth where where J is the mass mom ment of inertia and the
neodymium-ironboron (NdFeB) magnets. Fig. 4 shows a angular velocity. It can be seen in (1)that
( the energy stored is
schematic of an open HDD. These aree preferred over proportional to its mass, but proporrtional to the square of its
ferromagnetic magnets found in speakers, sinnce the latter have velocity. When using reused and recycled materials, it is
a peculiar shape and magnetization, and usee ferrite magnets, unlikely and unsafe to achieve verry high speeds. Thus, the
which have a low energy density. The coonductors for the mass of the flywheel needs to be maximized while keeping
machines can be sourced from the folloowing discarded losses minimal.For this reason, the axial orientation of the
components: transformers of old microwavees, coils from old flywheel needs to be investigated d. Since the mass of the
motors and generators, as well as from degauussing coils of old flywheel is high compared to its sp peed, the friction losses in
cathode ray tubes (CRTs). It is however very difficult to the bearings will be dominant. The T source of losses in a
unwind the wire of discarded components w without damaging bearing can be described by calculaating the frictional moment
the insulation, since the coils are usually cureed in epoxy resin. as [9]:
The degaussing coil of a CRT is seen in Fig. 55.
(2)

where Mrris the rolling frictional moment,

m Msl is the sliding
frictional moment, Mseal is the fricttional moment of the seals
and Mdrag is the frictional momeent of drag. In [10], the
different axial orientation for su ustainable flywheels was
investigated for deep groove ball bearings. It was shown that
the bearing losses for the horizontally orientated flywheel are
significantly lower than for the vertiically orientated flywheel.
Good candidates for a sustainab ble flywheel include the
following: flywheels sourced from vehicles,
v pressing cans into
a flywheel shape or using sheet maaterial to form a flywheel.
All the aforementioned optionss require an extensive
manufacturing process. The best option for a sustainable
flywheel seems to be a vehicle tire filled with solid material,
Fig. 4: Computer HDD with PMs such as concrete [11]. In [11], a susttainable flywheel using the
latter techniquehas been successfully y prototyped. The flywheel
consists of a discarded car tire, which is filled with a special
mixture of concrete to ensure meechanical integrity and is
shown in Fig. 6(a). A bearing and axle
a of an old car vertically
levitate the wheel above the ground as shown in Fig. 6(b). Fig.
7 shows the assembled flywheel without the safety mesh.

2160
 A horizontally orientated sustainable flyw wheel, which uses
the same car wheel as the latter protootype, has been
constructed in[10]. As expected are thee bearing losses
significantly lower is for this type of flywheeel. However, the
bearing and axle of the car could not be utilizzed, but is secured
by two commercially available roller bearinggs at each end of
the shaft. Therefore, the vertically orientaated flywheel is
chosen for the sustainable system.
Both flywheel systems were designed for a maximum speed
of 1500rpm. For a small motor vehicle wiith 13inch wheel
rims, the circumference of the wheels is equal to 1.79m.
Assuming the car is travelling at a speed of 160km/h, the
rotational speed of the wheels is just under 1500rpm. Hence,
1500rpm will be used as maximum speed of tthe flywheel.
(a) (b)
Fig. 6: Parts of sustainable flywheel[11]: (a) Discardedd car tire filled with a
special mix of concrete; (b) Bearing/axle structure of old car
Fig. 7: Assembled sustainable flywheel[11]
E. DC-DC Converters and System Controlller
In order to maximize the overall efficiencyy of the system, a
DC-DC converter and a system controller is required. The
proposed topology uses a DC-DC converrter to boost the
rectified voltage to the desired bus voltage annd a bi-directional
DC-DC converter manages to energy flow to and from the
flywheel. There are four potential scenarioos for the power
flow: Firstly, from the generator to the load and to the
2161
flywheel, in cases when the PMSG G generates excess energy.
Secondly, from the generator to the load and from the
flywheel to the load, in cases wheen the generator does not
meet the power demand of the loaad. Thirdly, all the energy
generated is consumed directly by th he load. Finally, the power
demand of the load is entirely mett by the flywheel, in cases
when the wind dies down completely.
In [7], a similar system topology y using a buck-boost and a
bi-directional converter was implem mented with a solar energy
source and a flywheel energy storage device. It is recorded
that the overall efficiency is greatly
y improved when using the
aforementioned system topology. The DC-DC converter,
system controller and bi-directionall DC-DC converter can be
built from readily available electrronic components, as was
done in [7] and [8].
IV. SIZING AND DESIGN OF SY
YSTEM COMPONENTS
The sustainable WECS topollogy, together with its
components and materials was presented
p in the previous
section. The sizing and design procedure of the individual
system components will be outlined in this section.
The rated wind speed (v), the tip speed ratio (), the
aerodynamic efficiency of the turbiine (Cp), the regulated DC
bus voltage, the efficiencies of the in
ndividual components, and
the amount of energy stored in the flywheel (Efly) are used as
inputs to the sizing procedure.
A. Electrical Load Profile
The sustainable wind energy caapture and storage system
will be assumed to supply a ruraal or impoverished urban
household, which consists of four LED
L lights, a portable radio
and two mobile phones. Assuming th he electrical appliances are
switched on as illustrated in Fig. 8,
8 the total energy per day
equates to 96Wh with its peak and minimum power demands
of 14W and 4W respectively [8][12]. The lights are assumed
to be switched on for two hours duriing the morning hours (6-8
AM) and from sunset (5 PM) till 10 PM. The two mobile
phones will be charged during the night
n time for three hours.
The portable radio is assumed to be operated for one hour
during lunch time, from 4-6 PM in the
t afternoon and from 7-9
PM in the evening, before the family goes to bed. The power
mongst others in TABLE I.
rating of the appliances is shown am
B. Flywheel Sizing and Design
Ideally the flywheel should storee at least one days energy
consumption, since the wind may not be available for up to
one day. Nevertheless, it is nearly im
mpossible for a sustainable
flywheel to store energy for more than
t one day at reasonable
costs. The vertically orientateed sustainable flywheel
prototyped in [11] and will be used d in the sizing and design
procedure presented here. The fly ywheel has a moment of
inertia (J) of 3.33kg m2 and its maxximum speed was specified
as 1500rpm. Using (1) the amoun nt of energy stored in the
prototyped flywheel was calculated to be 11.4Wh. Assuming a
depth of discharge of 90 % for the flywheel, the gross energy
available from the flywheel is 10.3W Wh, when it is decelerated
down to 474rpm.
 LED Lighting Mobile Phone Charger
12
14 14 Energy, m = 30min
Lightning
10 10 10
Power [W]

Power [W]
Cellphone Charger
Portable Radio
6 6 Max. Load
4 4 8 Max. Depth of Discharge

Energy [Wh]
0 0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 6
Time of Day [h] Time of Day [h]
Portable Radio Resultant Load Profile

14 14 4

10 10
Power [W]

Power [W]
2
6 6
4 4
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
0 0 Time [min]
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23
Time of Day [h] Time of Day [h] Fig. 9: Energy vs. Time graph of flywheel and loading points
Fig. 8: Developed load profile for a rural household 60
Flywheel no-load losses
Power drawn by load (Lightning)
TABLE I: ELECTRICAL APPLIANCES OF HOUSEHOLD 50 Total Power drawn from Flywheel

Description of Power Number Number of Energy

Load Rating of Hours Consumption 40

[W] Loads Used [Wh]

Power [W]
30
LED light 1 4 7 28
Portable Radio 10 1 5 50 20
Mobile Phone 3 2 3 18
Charger
10
Total 14 7 15 96

0
The dynamic equation for the mechanical system is given 0 10 20 30
Time [min]
40 50 60

by [13]: Fig. 10: Power vs. Time graph of flywheel

(3)
, be calculated by taking into account estimates of the
efficiencies of the BLDC motor and bidirectional DC-DC
where B is the equivalent viscous friction constant, fly is the converter of 75 % and 94 % respectively. The available energy
angular velocity of the flywheel, Tfly represents the rotational of the flywheel under no-load conditions, together with the
loss torque of the system, T is the torque needed to accelerate linear energy consumptions of the different loading points are
the flywheel and Ts,bldc is the resultant shaft torque of the shown in Fig. 9.
BLDC motor. In order to determine the period over which the The self discharge losses of the flywheel can be calculated
flywheel can supply the load with power, its no-loadrun-down by multiplying the rotational loss torque, Tfly with the angular
curve needs to be determined. The run-down curve is given by velocity of the flywheel, fly. Assuming that only the LED
[13]: lights are switched on, the total power drawn from the
flywheel is the sum of the flywheel losses and the constant
/
(4) power required by the LED lights. The latter example is
illustrated in Fig. 10. Integrating the total power with respect
where fly0 is the initial angular velocity of the flywheel and to time gives the total energy drawn from the flywheel. The
/ is the mechanical time constant of the system. The maximum period of time over which the flywheel can deliver
time constant m equals to 6.1min in the case of the prototyped power to the load is reached when the stored energy of
sustainable flywheel. Unfortunately this means that the 10.3Whis exceeded. The worst case scenario assumes that no
flywheel has a high self discharge rate, which indicates that it power is captured by the wind turbine and that maximum
is inefficient. It should however be noted that no optimizations power is demanded by the household. In this case, energy can
were done since the first sustainable flywheel was prototyped. be supplied to the load up to 12min, the radio can be used for
Assuming that an optimized flywheel resulted in an overall 14.1min, the mobile phones charged for 17.3min and the LED
efficiency improvement and a m of 30min, the available lights switched on for 19.9min, provided they are used
energy stored in the flywheel can be calculated by using (1). separately.
Constant power is drawn from the flywheel according to Fig. C. Wind Turbine Sizing and Design
8, which results in a linear energy consumption, since
The flywheel was sized and designed with respect to the
for constant power. The energy developed load profile in the previous sub-section. This sub-
consumption of the different loading points at the DC bus can section presents the sizing and design procedure of the wind

2162
turbine system.
With the viscous friction constant (B) and mechanical time
constant (m)known, the maximum torque of the flywheel
(Tfly,max)can be computed to be 0.29Nm. In order to keep the
flywheel spinning at 1500rpm, 45.6Wis needed at the shaft of
the BLDC. Allowing the flywheel to reach its maximum speed
in 1 hour, the resultant shaft torque equates to 0.336Nm,
which requires a shaft power of 52.8W. With the minimal
power specified, the shaft power at the turbine can be
determined by including the efficiencies of all components
between the flywheel and the turbine. This can be expressed
as:
, 30.78V. Furthermore, the maximum current is set to 3A, as the
, (5)
where Ps,turb and Ps,bldc are the shaft powers of the turbine and
BLDC motor respectively, gen, rect, dcdc, bidir, bldc are the
average efficiencies of the generator, rectifier, DC-DC
converter, bidirectional DC-DC converter and BLDC motor
respectively. The resultant shaft power determined in this
manner is 110.5W, if average efficiencies of 72%, 98%, 96%,
94% and 75% are assumed for the generator, rectifier, DC-DC
converter, bidirectional DC-DC converter and BLDC motor
respectively.
The power captured by a wind turbine from the incident
wind can be expressed as [14]:
1 generator power calculated in this manner is 15.2W. An
, (6)
2 absolute minimum wind speed of 2.5m/s is determined by
where air is the density of air at the height of the turbine, R
the radius of the wind turbine. Cp is a function of the tip speed
ratio (), at which the turbine is operating and can be
expressed as [14]:
(7)
where 2 /60is the mechanical angular velocity and n
the rotational speed in rpm.
With the shaft power of the generator being determined and
assuming that the turbine operates at cut-in wind speed of
4.35m/s, is set to 7, and Cp to a low value of 0.3 (due to the
fact that the turbine is proposed to be built from reused
materials such as PVC piping), the radius of the turbine can be
calculated to 1.54 m by solving (6) for R. The rotational speed
of the turbine can then be computed by inserting R into (6) and
by multiplying with the resultwith60/ 2 , which equals to
188rpm in this case.
Having determined the radius of the wind turbine and the
power rating of the generator at cut-in wind speed, the
generator can be designed and sized next.
D. Wind Generator Sizing and Design
The generator needs to be designed for the maximum
allowable wind speed, since this operating point produces
maximum back-EMF and consequently maximum power.
Inserting the maximum allowable wind speed of 8m\sinto(7),
the maximum shaft speed can be calculated to 347rpm. The
voltage rating of the generator is determined on the basis that
the bus voltage (Vbus) is fixed at 72V and the DC-DC boost
converter operates at a duty cycle of 0 for the maximum wind
speed. Under these conditions, the phase voltage (Vph) for a
wye connected generator can be written as [15]:
(8)
3 6
The generator phase voltage calculated in this manner is
maximum current density for a coreless generator should not
exceed 8mm2[14]. When using a conductor with a diameter of
0.7mm, the current density is to 7.8mm2. The maximum power
that can be extracted from the generator under the above
conditions equals to 277W. This results in an acceleration time
of the flywheel from 0 - 1500rpm in just less than 9 minutes.
A third operating scenario will be considered for the
sustainable wind energy capture and storage system. When the
wind speed drops below the designed cut-in wind speed of
4.35m/s, the turbine cannot capture enough power to keep the
flywheel running at 1500rpm. However, it might still capture
enough power to supply the household according to Fig. 3.
Assuming the same efficiencies of the components and using
the maximum power of 14W required at the bus, the minimum
inserting 15.2W into (5) and solving for v.
Considering all limitations, constraints and operation points
discussed so far, the wind generator and BLDC motor can be
sized accordingly.
E. DC-DC Converter Sizing and Design
The bus voltage needs to be regulated and is achieved by
means of the boost converter before the bus. It has been
mentioned that at the maximum allowable wind speed the duty
cycle is set to zero. When the wind speed drops, the converter
boosts the rectified voltage to 72V, thereby regulating the bus
voltage. The maximum boosting occurs when the turbine
operates at lowest wind speed of 2.5m/s. In this case the duty
cycle is 0.57. The maximum current passing through the
converter can be determined by dividing the maximum bus
power of 260.64W by the regulated bus voltage, which then
equates to be 3.62A. The bidirectional DC-DC converter is
rated for the same current as the boost converter. Depending
on the design of the BLDC motor, the duty cycles for the
different operation points of the flywheel can be determined
next.
A summary of the sizing results are given in TABLE II.
V. CONCLUSION
A topology for a sustainable wind energy capture and
storage system was formulated and a methodical sizing
approach of the individual components was presented.
Sustainable topologies for the individual components, together
2163
 TABLE II: Summary of results Systemfor Rural Applications Using a Split-Pi DC-DC
Converter, presented at the IEEE International
Wind Speed [m/s] 8 4.35 2.5 <2.5 Conference on Electric Machines and Drives
Turbine radius [m] 1.54 Conference (IEMDC), Niagara Falls, Canada, 2011.
Shaft speed of generator [rpm] 347 188 108 - [8] R. Okou, High Speed Flywheel and Test Rig Design
Phase voltage of generator [V] 30.78 17.67 13.36 - for Energy Storage, PhD Thesis, University of Cape
Output of generator [W] 277 79.57 15.16 - Town, Electrical Engineering, Cape Town, South
Rectifier voltage [V] 72 41.33 31.25 - Africa, 2010.
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flywheelfrom 0 to 1500 rpm
[min]
http://www.skf.com/portal/skf/home.
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[10] M. J. Rainey, Optimization of a Sustainable Flywheel
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[13] P. C. Sen, Principles of Electric Machines and Power
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Electronics, Second Edition, 2nd ed. John Wiley &
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range of wind speeds, i.e. from 2.5 - 8m/s. This guarantees Soft Magnetic Composites, PhD Thesis, University of
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to the household for up to 12min, before the wind needs to
pick up again. With the wind blowing at very low speeds
(>2.5m/s), the system is capable of supplying the household VII. VII. BIOGRAPHIES
continuously with power.
Hartmut Jagau received his B.Eng. degree in electrical engineering from the
VI. REFERENCES University of Applied Sciences of Karlsruhe, Germany, in 2009, and his
M.Sc. degree from the University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa, in
2011. He currently works as a power systems engineer for an engineering
[1] Statistics South Africa, Quarterly Labour Force consulting company in Cape Town. His research interests include electrical
machines, energy efficiency, renewable energy and sustainability.
Survey, 2010. Mohamed Azeem Khan received the B.Sc.(Eng.), M.Sc., and Ph.D. degrees
[2] O. Davidson and S. A. Mwakasonda, Electricity in electrical engineering from the University of Cape Town in South Africa.
access for the poor: a study of South Africa and He was with the South African electricity utility, Eskom, at its Nuclear Power
Zimbabwe, Energy for Sustainable Development, vol. Station as a Maintenance Engineer and as a System Engineer on the turbine
and generator control systems. He completed a course in Nuclear Engineering
8, no. 4, pp. 26-40, Dec. 2004. while at Eskom. He is currently an Associate Professor at the University of
[3] US Environmental Protection Agency, Fact Sheet: Cape Town, where his research interests include electrical machines, drives
Management of Electronic Waste in the United States, and renewable energy systems.
May 2005. Paul Barendse received the B.Sc.(Eng.),M.Sc., and Ph.D. degrees in
electrical engineering from the University of Cape Town in South Africa. He
[4] EWASA, eWaste Assessment South Africa, Nov.
is currently a Senior Lecturer at the University of Cape Town. He is currently
2008. involved in several research projects for Eskom and SANERI. His research
[5] G. Pauli, The Blue Economy: 10 Years, 100 interests include condition monitoring, drives, fuel cells, and energy
Innovations, 100 Million Jobs. Paradigm Publications, efficiency.
2010.
[6] E. Rossouw and M. J. Kamper, Use of Air-Cored
Axial Flux Permanent Magnet Generator in Direct
Battery Charging Wind Energy Systems, in Power
Electronics and Drive Systems, 2007. PEDS 07. 7th
International Conference on, 2007, pp. 1102-1107.
[7] A. Maclaurin, R. Okou, P. Barendse, M. A. Khan, and
P. Pillay, Control of a Flywheel Energy Storage

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