Small Wind TurbinesInnovation opportunities via

small wind turbine testing

Daniel FesztyAssociate Professor

Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

8 April 2010

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Outline

Wind energy research at Carleton University Wind energy overview Areas requiring research Potential research at WCEC

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Wind energy research at Carleton University

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Wind energy research at Carleton University Primarily conducted by

– Rotorcraft Research Group– 4 Professors, 18 researchers– Transferring knowledge from helicopters to wind turbines

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Wind energy research at Carleton University Prof. Fred Nitzsche

– PhD - Stanford University (1983)– Thesis on Darrieus wind turbines

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Wind energy research at Carleton University Strong in experiments:

Scaled wind farm experiment

at Carleton University

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Wind energy research at Carleton University Strong in computations:

CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) simulations for a helicopter and a wind turbine

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Wind energy research at Carleton University Our PhD graduates found employment at:

- Vestas (Denmark): 2- National Research Council, Ottawa (Wind Energy group): 3

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Wind energy overview

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Wind energy overview:Wind energy usage

Wind energy usage in Canada: 30% growth annually!!!

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Wind energy overview:Wind resources

Mean annual wind speed distribution in Canada (Canadian Wind Atlas)

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Wind energy overview:Wind resources

Mean annual wind speed distribution in Ontario (Canadian Wind Atlas)

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Wind energy overview: Classification of wind power

Ontario inland Most of Canada

Most turbines built for

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Wind energy overview: Wind resources

Category 6 & 7 sites not available Mostly sold out Far from big cities

Category 3-5 sites Not utilized so far (most of Ontario/Canada) Lack of efficient wind turbines for them

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Wind energy overview: Wind turbine types

Two basic types of wind turbines:

Vertical Axis Horizontal Axis

ADV: works in any wind direction very high power

DIS: medium power needs to be “yawed”(turned)

into wind direction

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Wind energy overview: Wind turbine types

Two basic types of wind turbines:

Vertical Axis (no yaw control, medium power, smaller):

Savonius-rotor Darrieus-rotor H-rotor

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Wind energy overview: Wind turbine types

Two basic types of wind turbines:

Horizontal Axis (yaw control, high power, larger):

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Wind energy overview: Size vs. power

• Power from wind grows with D2:

P = 0.5 r v3 A = 0.5 r v3 (p D2)/4 need large turbine!

15 m

80 m

112 m

126 m

160 m

‘85 ‘89‘87 ‘91 ‘93 ‘95 ‘97 ‘99 ‘01 ‘03 ‘06

0.06 0.3 0.5 1.3 1.6 2.0 8.04.5 5.0

?Year

Power [MW]

Dia

met

er [m

]

1 MW = 300 homes

A380

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Wind energy overview: Interference effects

Wake interference: 30-40% loss of power when in wake!

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Wind energy overview: Interference effects

3DW

Wind Direction

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Wind energy overview: Interference effects

Wind Direction

Power of the downstream turbine is reduced by 40%

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Wind energy overview:Interference effects

Scaled wind farm experiment

at Carleton University

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Wind energy overview: Modern Horizontal Axis Turbines

designed for category 6-7 wind "clean" flow

growing size (D = 120-160 m) is a problem for transportation installation maintenance availability

COST!

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The Aeloun Harvester:Cheap, small turbine for the 3rd

world

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Areas requiring research

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Areas requiring research:

Smaller turbines for lower category (3-5) wind speeds Would be very interesting for Ontario/Canada Cheap, small turbines for 3rd world countries (“Lighting up

Africa”) What size and type?

Interference effects mitigation: Special blade design for “dirty” flow? Actively controlled blades?

Better wake modelling/prediction Current wake models overpredict power by about 15% This means $90 million loss for a 120 turbine farm

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Areas requiring research:

To answer the above questions, one needs: Advanced computational methods (for design and

optimization) Full-size experiments to validate these

For experiments: Wind tunnels simply not suited (test section too small &

short) Need: “wind testing” instead of “wind tunnel testing” Carleton University does not have a suitable site for “wind

testing”

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Potential research at West Carleton Energy Centre (WCEC)

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Potential research at WCEC

Need for experimental testing

Carleton University needs large wind exposed site to test research turbines

WCEC could be ideal to serve as Carleton’s “wind test site” testing small (or scaled) turbines not fitting a wind tunnel foundation not an issue turbines on top or at bottom of hill data used to validate CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) CFD used to design better wind turbines

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Potential research at WCEC

OR: combine solar and wind research?

Experimental thermal upwind power plant in Manzanares, Spain, 1985. Tower height200 m, tower diameter 10 m, diameter of collector roof about 250 mThermal upwind power plant

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Questions?

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Questions?