Small-Scale Wind Power

In today's world clean and robust energy sources are beingsought to provide power to residences commercial operationsand manufacturing enterprises. Among the most appealingenergy sources is wind power-with its high reliability andlow environmental impact. Wind power's rapid penetrationinto markets throughout the world has taken many forms andthis book discusses the types of wind power as well as theappropriate decisions that need to be made regarding windpower design testing installation and analysis.Inside the authors detail the design of various small-windsystems including horizontal-axis wind turbines (HAWTs) andvertical-axis wind turbines (VAWTs). The design of wind turbinestakes advantage of many avenues of investigation all of whichare included in the book. Analytical methods that have beendeveloped over the past few decades are major methods usedfor design. Alternatively experimentation (typically using scaledmodels in wind tunnels) and numerical simulation (using moderncomputational fluid dynamic software) are also used and will bedealt with in depth.In addition to the analysis of wind turbine performance it isimportant for users to assess the economic benefits of using windpower. An entire chapter of this book is devoted to this topicas well as case studies that help elucidate the issues that you'llneed to consider from siting and mechanical complications toperformance and maintenance.