Mechanical engineering 5th year motor vehicle

WIND ENERGY SYSTEMS

INTRODUCTION
What is wind?
Wind is the roughly horizontal movement of air (as opposed to an air current) caused by uneven

heating of the Earth's surface .

It occurs at all scales, from local breezes generated by heating of land surfaces and lasting
tens of minutes to global winds resulting from solar retard heating of the Earth.
The two major influences on the atmospheric circulation are the differential heating between
the equator and the poles and the rotation of the planet.

Wind energy is another potential source of energy. Winds are the motion of air caused by un-
even heating of the earth’s surface by the sun and rotation of the earth. It generates due to
various global phenomena such as ‘air-temperature difference’ associated with different rates
of solar heating. Since the earth’s surface is made up of land, desert, water, and forest areas,
the surface absorbs the sun’s radiation differently. Locally, the strong winds are created by
sharp temperature difference between the land and the sea.
CLASSIFICATION OF WIND
Winds can be classified either by their scale, the kinds of forces which cause them
(according to the atmospheric equations of motion), or the geographic regions in which they
exist.

 Prevailing winds — the general circulation of the atmosphere.

 Mesoscale winds; winds that frequently advances ahead of more intense
thunderstorms and may be sufficiently energetic to generate local weather of its own.

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 Synoptic-scale winds; winds associated with large-scale events such as warm and
cold fronts and are part of what makes up everyday weather
 Seasonal winds – winds that only exist during specific seasons.
 Microscale winds; winds that take place over very short durations of time - seconds
to minutes - and spatially over only tens to hundreds of meters. Winds that produces
convective events such as dust devils and are essentially unpredictable
WIND RESOURCE
 Surface features have a major impact on local wind, and can increase or
decrease in wind power and speed and cause turbulence.

Flat terrain with obstacles causes turbulence and decrease in wind power and
speed for a significant distance from object.
 Surface Roughness Friction between the Earth and the wind cause the wind
speed to be lower closer to the surface.

LITERATURE REVIEW
HISTORICAL USES OF WIND
The wind has been used to power sailing ships for many centuries. Many countries owed their
prosperity to their skill in sailing. The New World was explored by wind powered ships.
Indeed, wind was almost the only source of power for ships until Watt invented the steam
engine in the 18th Century.
On land, wind turbines date back many centuries. It has been reported that the Babylonian
emperor Hammurabi planned to use wind turbines for irrigation in the seventeenth century
B.C. [3]. Hero of Alexandria, who lived in the third century B.C., described a simple
horizontal axis wind turbine with four sails which was used to blow an organ [3].

The Persians were using wind turbines extensively by the middle of the seventh century A.D.
theirs was a vertical axis machine with a number of radially-mounted sails [3].
These early machines were undoubtedly crude and mechanically inefficient but they served
their purpose well for many centuries. They were made from local materials by cheap labor.
Maintenance was probably a problem which served to keep many people at work. Their size
was probably determined by the materials available. A need for more power was met by

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building more wind turbines rather than larger ones. There are many of the lesser developed
countries of the world today which could profitably use such low technology machines
because of the large amounts of cheap, unskilled labor available. Such countries often have
difficulty acquiring the foreign exchange necessary to purchase high technology machines, and
then have difficulty maintaining them.
The earliest recorded English wind turbine is dated at 1191. The first corn-grinding wind
turbine was built in Holland in 1439. There were a number of technological developments
through the centuries, and by 1600 the most common wind turbine was the tower mill. The
word mill refers to the operation of grinding or milling grain. This application was so common
that all wind turbines were often called windmills even when they actually pumped water or
performed some other function. We will usually use the more general terms wind turbine or
wind machine rather than windmill, unless the application is actually that of grinding grain.
The tower mill had a fixed supporting tower with a rotatable cap which carried the wind rotor.
The tower was usually built of brick in a cylindrical shape, but was sometimes built of wood,
and polygonal in cross section. In one style, the cap had a support or tail extending out and
down to ground level. A circle of posts surrounded the tower where the support touched the
ground. The miller would check the direction of the prevailing wind and rotate the cap and
rotor into the wind with a winch attached between the tail and one of the posts. The tail would
then be tied to a post to hold the rotor in the proper direction. This process would be repeated
when the wind direction changed. Protection from high winds was accomplished by turning
the rotor out of the wind or by removing the canvas covering the rotor latticework.
The optimization of the rotor shape probably took a long time to accomplish. It is interesting to
note that the rotors on many of the Dutch mills are twisted and tapered in the same way as
modern rotors and appear to have nearly optimized the aerodynamic parameters necessary for
maximum efficiency. The rotors presently on the tower mills probably do not date back to the
original construction of the tower, but still indicate high quality aerodynamic engineering of a
period much earlier than the present.
HISTORY OF WIND ELECTRIC GENERATION
Denmark was the first country to use the wind for generation of electricity. The Danes were
using a 23 m diameter wind turbine in 1890 to generate electricity. By 1910, several hundred
units with capacities of 5 to 25 kW were in operation in Denmark.

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About 1925, commercial wind-electric plants using two- and three-bladed propellers appeared
on the American market. The most common brands were Wincharger (200 to 1200 w) and
Jacobs (1.5 to 3 kW). These were used on farms to charge storage batteries which were then
used to operate radios, lights, and small appliances with voltage ratings of 12, 32, or 110 volts.
A good selection of 32 Vdc appliances was developed by industry to meet this demand. Then
the Rural Electric Administration (REA) was established by Congress in 1936. Low interest
loans were provided so the necessary transmission and distribution lines could be constructed
to supply farmers with electricity. In the early days of the REA, around 1940, electricity could
be supplied to the rural customer at a cost of 3 to 6 cents per kWh. The corresponding cost of
wind generated electricity was 12 to 30 cents per kWh when interest, depreciation, and
maintenance were included [6]. The lower cost of electricity produced by a central utility plus
the greater reliability led to the rapid demise of the home wind electric generator.
The Smith-Putnam machine had a tower which was 34 m high and a rotor 53 m in diameter.
The rotor had a chord (the distance from the leading to the trailing edge) of 3.45 m. Each of
the two blades was made with stainless steel ribs covered by a stainless steel skin and weighed
7300 kg. The blade pitch (the angle at which the blade passes through the air) was adjustable
to maintain a constant rotor speed of 28.7 r/min. This rotational speed was maintained in wind
speeds as high as 32 m/s. At higher wind speeds, the blades were feathered and the machine
stopped. The rotor turned an ac synchronous generator that produced 1250 kW of electrical
power at wind speeds above 13 m/s.
Between 1941 and 1945 the Smith-Putnam machine accumulated about 1100 hours of
operation. More would have been accumulated except for the problem of getting critical repair
parts during the war. In 1945 one of the blades failed, due more to inadequate design than to
technological limitations. The project was reviewed and was determined to be a technical
success. The economics did not justify building more machines at that time, however. It
appeared that additional Smith-Putnam machines could be built for about $190/installed kW.
Oil and coal fired generation could be bought in 1945 for $125/installed kW. This was too
large a difference to justify to the stock-holders, so the project was stopped and the wind
machine was dismantled.

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Dr. Ulrich Hutter of Germany built a 100 kW machine in 1957. It reached its rated power
output at a wind speed of 8 m/s, which is substantially lower than the machines mentioned
earlier. This machine used lightweight, 35 m diameter fiberglass blades with a simple hollow
pipe tower supported by guy wires. The blade pitch would change at higher wind speeds to
keep the propeller angular velocity constant. Dr. Hutter obtained over 4000 hours of full rated
power operation over the next 11 years, a substantial amount for an experimental machine.
This allowed important contributions to the design of larger wind turbines to be made.
TYPES OF WIND TURBINE
HORIZONTAL AXIS WIND TURBINES
The horizontal wind turbine is a turbine in which the axis of the rotor's rotation is parallel to the
wind stream and the ground. Most HAWTs today are two- or three-bladed, though some may
have fewer or more blades. There are two kinds of Horizontal Axis Wind Turbines: the upwind
wind turbine and the downwind wind turbine. The HAWT works when the wind passes over
both surfaces of the airfoil shaped blade but passes more rapidly at the upper side of the blade,
thus, creating a lower-pressure area above the airfoil. The difference in the pressures of the top
and bottom surfaces results in an aerodynamic lift.

Advantages of horizontal wind turbines

In the horizontal wind turbine, the blades are to the side of the turbine's centre of gravity,
helping stability. They have the ability to wing warp, which gives the turbine blades the best
angle of attack. Allowing the angle of attack to be remotely adjusted gives greater control, so
the turbine collects the maximum amount of wind energy for the time of day and season. The
blades also have the ability to pitch the rotor blades in a storm, to minimize, damage.

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Disadvantages of horizontal wind turbines

HAWTs have difficulty operating in near ground, turbulent winds because their yaw and
blade bearings need smoother, more laminar wind flows. The tall towers and long blades (up
to 180 feet long) are difficult to transport on sea and land. Transportation can now account
for 20% of equipment costs. Tall HAWTs are difficult to install, needing very tall and
expensive cranes and skilled operators.
VERTICAL AXIS WIND TURBINE

Advantages of vertical wind turbines

Vertical wind turbines are easier to maintain because most of their moving parts are located
near the ground. This is due to the vertical wind turbines shape. The airfoils or rotor blades
are connected by arms to a shaft that sits on a bearing and drives a generator below, usually
by first connecting to a gearbox. As the rotor blades are vertical, a yaw device is not needed,
reducing the need for this bearing and its cost. Vertical wind turbines have a higher airfoil
pitch angle, giving improved aerodynamics while decreasing drag at low and high pressures.
Disadvantages of vertical wind turbines
There may be a height limitation to how tall a vertical wind turbine can be built and how
much swept area it can have. Most VAWTS need to be installed on a relatively flat piece of
land and some sites could be too steep for them while available to HAWTs. VAWTs that use
guy wires to hold it in place create serious problems for the bottom bearing as all the weight
of the rotor is on it and the guy wires increase downward thrust in wind gusts. Solving this

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problem requires a superstructure to hold in place the top bearing that also can share the
weight of the rotor.
COMPONENTS OF WIND TURBINE

Anemometer: Measures the wind speed and transmits wind speed data to the controller.
Blades: Most turbines have either two or three blades. Wind blowing over the blades causes
the blades to "lift" and rotate.
Brake: A disc brake which can be applied mechanically, electrically, or hydraulically to
stop the rotor in emergencies.
Controller: The controller starts up the machine at wind speeds of about 8 to 16 miles per
hour (mph) and shuts off the machine at about 65 mph. Turbines cannot operate at wind
speeds above about 65 mph because their generators could overheat.
Gear box: Gears connect the low-speed shaft to the high-speed shaft and increase the
rotational speeds from about 30 to 60 rotations per minute (rpm) to about 1200 to 1500 rpm,
the rotational speed required by most generators to produce electricity. The gear box is a
costly (and heavy) part of the wind turbine and engineers are exploring "direct-drive"
generators that operate at lower rotational speeds and don't need gear boxes.
Generator: Usually an off-the-shelf induction generator that produces 60-cycle AC electricity.
High-speed shaft: Drives the generator.
Low-speed shaft: The rotor turns the low-speed shaft at about 30 to 60 rotations per minute.

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Nacelle: The rotor attaches to the nacelle, which sits atop the tower and includes the gear
box, low- and high-speed shafts, generator, controller, and brake. A cover protects the
components inside the nacelle. Some nacelles are large enough for a technician to stand
inside while working.
Pitch: Blades are turned, or pitched, out of the wind to keep the rotor from turning in winds
that are too high or too low to produce electricity.
Rotor: The blades and the hub together are called the rotor.
Tower: Towers are made from tubular steel (shown here) or steel lattice. Because
wind speed increases with height, taller towers enable turbines to capture more
energy and generate more electricity.
Wind direction: This is an "upwind" turbine, so-called because it operates facing into the
wind. Other turbines are designed to run "downwind", facing away from the wind.
Wind vane: Measures wind direction and communicates with the yaw drive to orient the
turbine properly with respect to the wind.
Yaw drive: Upwind turbines face into the wind; the yaw drive is used to keep the rotor
facing into the wind as the wind direction changes. Downwind turbines don't require a
yaw drive; the wind blows the rotor downwind.
Yaw motor: Powers the yaw drive.
WORKING OF WIND TURBINE
Wind turbines operate on a simple principle. The energy in the wind turns two or three propeller-
like blades around a rotor. The rotor is connected to the main shaft, which spins a generator to
create electricity. Wind is a form of solar energy and is a result of the uneven heating of the
atmosphere by the sun, the irregularities of the earth's surface, and the rotation of the earth, The
terms wind energy or wind power describe the process by which the wind is used to generate
mechanical power or electricity. Wind turbines convert the kinetic energy in the wind into
mechanical power. This mechanical power can be used for specific tasks (such as grinding grain
or pumping water) or a generator can convert this mechanical power into electricity.
The huge rotor blades on the front of a wind turbine are the "turbine" part. The blades have a
special curved shape, similar to the airfoil wings on a plane. When wind blows past a plane's
wings, it moves them upward with a force we call lift; when it blows past a turbine's blades, it
spins them around instead. The wind loses some of its kinetic energy (energy of movement) and

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the turbine gains just as much. As you might expect, the amount of energy that a turbine makes is
proportional to the area that its rotor blades sweep out; in other words, the longer the rotor
blades, the more energy a turbine will generate. Obviously, faster winds help too: if the wind
blows twice as quickly, there's potentially eight times more energy available for a turbine to
harvest. That's because the energy in wind is proportional to the cube of its speed.
Generally Generating electricity from the wind: Wind passes over the blades exerting a turning
force. The rotating blades turn a shaft inside the nacelle, which goes into a gearbox. The gearbox
increases the rotation speed for the generator, which uses magnetic fields to convert the
rotational energy into electrical energy. The power output goes to a transformer, which converts
the electricity from the generator at around 700 Volts (V) to the right voltage for the distribution
system, typically between 11 kV and 132 kV. The regional electricity distribution networks or
National Grid transmit the electricity around the country, and on into homes and businesses.

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF WIND ENERGY

Advantages
1. Renewable & Sustainable: Wind energy itself is both renewable and sustainable. The wind
will never run out, unlike the earth’s fossil fuel reserves (such as coal, oil and gas), making it the
ideal energy source for a sustainable power supply.
2. Environmentally Friendly: Wind energy is one of the most environmentally friendly energy
sources available today. After the manufacture and installation of wind turbines, there will be
little to no pollution generated as a result of the wind turbines themselves. Wind turbines produce
no greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2) or methane (CH4) which are both known to
contribute towards global warming. It should be noted that noise and visual pollution are both
environmental factors, but they don’t have a negative effect on the earth, water table or the
quality of the air we breathe.

3. Reduces Fossil Fuel Consumption: Generating electricity from wind energy reduces the
need to burn fossil fuel alternatives such as coal, oil and gas. This can help to conserve
dwindling supplies of the earth’s natural resources, allowing them to last longer and help to
support future generations.

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4. Wind Energy is Free: Unlike some other energy sources, wind energy is completely free.
There’s no market for the supply and demand of wind energy, it’s there to be used by anyone and
will never run out. This makes wind energy a viable option for generating cheap electricity.

5. Small Footprint: Wind turbines have a relatively small land footprint. Although they can
tower high above the ground, the impact on the land at the base is minimal. The area around the
base of a wind turbine can often be used for other purposes such as agriculture.

6. Industrial & Domestic Installations: Wind turbines aren’t just limited to industrial-scale
installations such as wind farms. They can also be installed on a domestic scale, with many
landowners opting to install smaller, less powerful wind turbines in order to provide part of a
domestic electricity supply. Domestic wind turbines are often coupled with other renewable
energy technologies such as solar panels or geothermal heating systems.

7. Remote Power Solution: Wind turbines can play a key role in helping to bring power to
remote locations. This can help to benefit everything from a small off-grid village to a remote
research station.

8. Wind Technology Becoming Cheaper: The first ever electricity-generating wind turbine was
invented in 1888. Since then, wind turbines have improved significantly and nowadays the
technology is beginning to come down in price, making it much more accessible.

9. Low Maintenance: Wind turbines are considered relatively low maintenance. A new wind
turbine can be expected to last some time prior to any maintenance work needing to be carried
out. Although older wind turbines can come up against reliability issues, each new generation of
wind turbine is helping to improve reliability.

10. Low Running Costs: As wind energy is free, running costs are considered to be low. The
only ongoing cost associated with wind energy is for the maintenance of wind turbines, which
are considered low maintenance in nature anyway.

Disadvantages

1. The Wind Fluctuates: Wind energy has a similar drawback to solar energy in that it is not a
constant energy source. Although wind energy is sustainable and will never run out, the wind
isn’t always blowing. This can cause serious problems for wind turbine developers who will
often spend significant time and money investigating whether or not a particular site is suitable

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for the generation of wind power. For a wind turbine to be efficient, the location where it is built
needs to have an adequate supply of wind energy. This is why we often see wind turbines built
on top of hills or out at sea, where there are less land obstacles to reduce the intensity of wind
energy.

2. Installation is Expensive: Although costs are reducing over time, the installation of a wind
turbine is considered expensive. First, a site survey will need to be carried out which may
involve having to erect a sample turbine to measure wind speeds over a significant period of
time. If deemed adequate, the wind turbine will need to be manufactured, transported and erected
on top of a pre-built foundation. All of these processes contribute to the overall cost of installing
a wind turbine. When the above is taken into account for offshore wind farms, costs become
much greater. It’s much harder to install wind turbines out at sea than it is on land, and some
companies have even commissioned bespoke ships capable of transporting and installing wind
turbines at sea.

3. Threat to Wildlife: It’s widely reported that wind turbines pose a threat to wildlife, primarily
birds and bats. It is however believed that wind turbines pose less of a threat to wildlife than
other manmade structures such as cell phone masts and radio towers. Nevertheless, wind turbines
are contributing to mortality rates among bird and bat populations.

4. Noise Pollution: One of the most popular disadvantages of wind turbines is the noise
pollution that they generate. A single wind turbine can be heard from hundreds of meters away.
Combine multiple wind turbines and the audible effects can be much greater.

Noise pollution from wind turbines has ruined the lives of some homeowners. Although steps are
often taken to site wind turbines away from dwellings, they do sometimes get built too close to
where people live and this is why new wind farms often come up against strong public objection.

5. Visual Pollution: Another widely reported disadvantage of wind turbines is visual pollution.
Although many people actually like the look of wind turbines, others do not and see them as a
blot on the landscape. This tends to come down to personal opinion, and as more wind farms are
built, public acceptance is becoming commonplace.

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APPLICATIONS
Water Pumping
The livelihood and well-being of people, animals, and crops depends on a reliable, cost-effective
supply of clean water. Mechanical wind water pumping machines have been used to pump water
from wells for centuries. The technology of modern mechanical water pumpers is relatively
simple, the maintenance requirements are modest, and the replacement parts are not difficult to
obtain. The mechanical water pumper is the best option in some circumstances. However,
because it must be placed close to the water source, it is often unable to capture the best wind
resources. A wind electric pumping system overcomes some of the problems with the simple
wind water pumper. This system generates electricity, which, in turn, runs an electric pump.
Wind electric pumping systems allow greater siting flexibility, higher efficiency of wind energy
conversion, increased water output, increased versatility in use of output power, and decreased
maintenance and life-cycle costs.
Stand-Alone Systems for Home and Business
In many places, wind power is the least-cost option for providing power to homes and businesses
that are remote from an established grid. Researchers estimate that wind produces more power at
less cost than diesel generators at any remote site with an average wind speed greater than about
4 meters per second. The applications for electricity in households range from operating small
household appliances to refrigeration and freezing, heating, cooling, and lighting.
Industrial Applications
The number of dedicated industrial applications for wind power continues to grow. Small wind
power systems are ideal for applications where storing and shipping fuel is uneconomical or
impossible. Wind power is currently being used for the following applications:
 telecommunications
 radar
 pipeline control
 navigational aids
 cathodic protection
 weather stations/seismic monitoring
 air-traffic control

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Wind machines in industrial applications typically encounter more extreme weather than home
power systems and must be designed to be robust with very minimal maintenance.

Electricity generation:
Wind turbines vary in size and type. They are commercially available for electricity
generation. Size of wind turbines (400 Watt-5 MW) how do wind turbines make electricity?
The wind turns the blades, which spin a shaft, which connects to a generator and makes
electricity.
REFERENCES
 BLM, 1997, Record of Decision, SEAWEST/PacifiCorp Windpower Project, Rights-
of-Way Grants WYW-130382, WYW-130929, and WYW-136588, prepared by
Rawlins District Office, Rawlins, Wyo., July.
 BLM, 1998, 8270 ⎯ Paleontological Resource Management, Release 8-68, U.S.
Department of the Interior, July 13.
 http://www.windpoweringamerica.gov/pdfs/small_wind/small_wind_mi.pdf
http://www.windpoweringamerica.gov/docs/what_landowners_should_know.doc.
 Cox, C., 2004, “From Snack Bars to Rebar: How Project Development Boosted
Local Businesses Up and Down the Wind Energy ‘Supply Chain’ in Lamar,
Colorado,” paper presented at the Global Wind Power 2004 Conference, Chicago,
Ill., March.
 Text book of Wind Energy Conversion Systems
 Wind Turbine Technology: Fundamental Concepts of Wind Turbine Engineering” by
Spera D A.
 Wind Energy Systems” by Johnson G L.
 Solar PV and Wind Energy Conversion Systems (Green Energy and Technology)”
by S Sumathi and L Ashok Kumar.
 Wind Energy Conversion Systems as Active Filters” by Grazia Todeschini.
 Wind Power: A Handbook on Wind Energy Conversion Systems” by V Daniel Hunt.

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