Micro-wind turbine system in urban environment

Abstract

Wind power is identified to be of great potential for extensive development in many countries to reduce the fossil fuel based power generation. Conventional three blades wind turbines are commonly used in locations with high wind energy density, while small wind turbines are developed for less windy locations such as urban areas and flat lands. An innovative micro wind turbine was developed to generate power in urban environment where wind speed is usually low. Differing from the traditional wind turbine that can be connected directly to the grid, this system is linked to a small generator and batteries, and mainly used for local applications. The advantage of the micro wind turbine is that, apart from its low cost, it can be propelled by a very low wind speed. Computation fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations have been conducted to help evaluate the performance of a single micro wind turbine.