Small wind turbines for on grid and off grid applications

Abstract

Electricity production must shift towards carbon neutral sources such as wind power to mitigate the impacts of climate change. Wind energy today accounts 18.8% of total installed power generation capacity in Europe, with a total installed capacity of 189 GW (170 GW onshore and 19 GW offshore wind farms), taking the second largest form of power generation capacity, closely approaching gas installed capacity. The progress of wind turbine technology over the last 20 years is important and is also the main reason for the rapid development of the wind power globally. In addition, the nominal capacity of onshore wind turbines has increased to more than 3 MW and more than 5 MW for offshore wind turbines. Despite the tendency for larger wind turbines there is a significant potential for small wind turbines for the urban environment as well as for off grid applications. The objective of this work is to provide a spherical knowledge of the technology of small wind turbines in the range of some kW up to 50kW nominal capacity, their market, costs, as well as their possible applications in urban and in off grid environment. Parameters such as, performance, noise issues, and visual disturbance is also discussed in this paper.