Design of an active pitch control for small horizontal-axis wind turbine

Abstract

The installed power capacity from small wind turbines would rise in case of having higher efficiency values. The performance of these devices is very sensitive to wind conditions, especially to wind gusts and turbulence. Performance extracted from small-scale wind turbine datasheets show large variations of power output between turbulent and non-turbulent sites and often the installation in intermittent wind sites is discouraged. The use of blades with fixed positions is a clear drawback of small wind turbines. Here, we propose a design of a smart active pitch control to increase the energy generation of micro-wind turbines (< 5 kWp). The design consists of a simple mechanism that allows the rotation of the blades controlled by a low cost peripheral interface controller. The possibility to orientate the blades so as to maximise the power output at all wind conditions will increase the performance of this small wind turbines. The design is robust and economical, which will increase its potential adoptability rate by the end-user.