Small wind turbines utilize wind energy to produce power with rated capacities of 100 kilowatts or less. With this increasingly popular technology, individual businesses, farms, and homes can generate their own electricity and cut their energy bills , while generating power in an environmentally sound manner. The challenges facing the engineers who are tasked with planning and developing these small wind systems are multifaceted, from choosing the best site and accurately estimating power output, to obtaining proper permitting and troubleshooting operational inefficiencies. Optimization of project development for small wind applications is a necessity. Small Wind: Planning and Building Successful Installations provides a cohesive guide to achieving successful small wind installations from an informed expert. It is a comprehensive information resource from one of the world's most experienced small wind professionals, covering all the key issues for small wind system development, from site and machine selection to international standards compliance. - Establishes technical guidelines for the growing number of engineers called upon to plan small wind projects - Identifies and explains the critical issues for small wind installations, including siting, turbine choice, applications and permitting, economics, load management, and grid integration - Examples from real projects demonstrate key considerations for success, complete with template spreadsheets and measurements needed to support project planning efforts - Includes reports on the most commonly used turbines and designs and synthesizes and clarifies relevant wind industry documentation, saving readers endless hours of research

A STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE TO BUILDING A SMALL WIND POWER SYSTEM FROM THE GROUND UP Written by renewable energy experts, this hands-on resource provides the technical information and easy-to-follow instructions you need to harness the wind and generate clean, safe, and reliable energy for on-site use. Build Your Own Small Wind Power System shows you how to install a grid-connected or off-grid residential-scale setup. Get tips for evaluating your site for wind power potential, obtaining permits, financing your project, selecting components, and assembling and maintaining your system. Pictures, diagrams, charts, and graphs illustrate each step along the way. You'll also find out how you can help promote wind-friendly public policies locally. Save money and reduce your carbon footprint with help from this practical guide. COVERAGE INCLUDES: Challenges and impacts of small wind energy Electricity, energy, and wind science Determining if wind power is right for you Site assessment Financing small wind power Permits and zoning Wind turbine fundamentals Choosing the right wind turbine for the job Balance of system: batteries, inverters, and controllers Installation, maintenance, and troubleshooting Future developments in wind power

Small Wind Turbines provides a thorough grounding in analysing, designing, building, and installing a small wind turbine. Small turbines are introduced by emphasising their differences from large ones and nearly all the analysis and design examples refer to small turbines. The accompanying software includes MATLAB® programs for power production and starting performance, as well as programs for detailed multi-objective optimisation of blade design. A spreadsheet is also given to help readers apply the simple load model of the IEC standard for small wind turbine safety. Small Wind Turbines represents the distilled outcome of over twenty years experience in fundamental research, design and installation, and field testing of small wind turbines. Small Wind Turbines is a suitable reference for student projects and detailed design studies, and also provides important background material for engineers and others using small wind turbines for remote power and distributed generation applications.

This practical book deals with the technology of small-power wind turbines as opposed to widely diffused industrial wind turbines and wind farms. It covers the most common wind turbine technologies in the small power segment: horizontal axis both for electrical generation and water pumping, vertical axis of the Darrieus type, and vertical axis of the Savonius type. With each chapter following the same didactic scheme—a theoretical explanation and practical examples showing calculation procedures—it allows anybody with basic technical knowledge to design and build a small wind turbine for any site. A set of simple spreadsheets is available for download, each providing further examples of how to solve specific design problems and allowing the reader to play with changing parameters and see what-if. This simple trial-and-error learning process allows beginners to develop the feeling of the orders of magnitude involved in the design of a small wind power system, its potential advantages on other alternative solutions, and its limitations under some special circumstances.

Paul Gipe, one of the world's leading experts on wind power has now created an introductory guide to wind energy systems. This book gives an overview of the burgeoning use of wind energy around the globe, describing and analyzing the most affordable small wind generators, including the new generation of highly practical micro turbines. Wind Energy Basics includes detailed information on planning, purchasing, siting, and installing a wind system, and on integrating wind power with solar photovoltaics for more cost-effective and reliable off-the-grid applications.

Wind energy’s bestselling textbook- fully revised. This must-have second edition includes up-to-date data, diagrams, illustrations and thorough new material on: the fundamentals of wind turbine aerodynamics; wind turbine testing and modelling; wind turbine design standards; offshore wind energy; special purpose applications, such as energy storage and fuel production. Fifty additional homework problems and a new appendix on data processing make this comprehensive edition perfect for engineering students. This book offers a complete examination of one of the most promising sources of renewable energy and is a great introduction to this cross-disciplinary field for practising engineers. “provides a wealth of information and is an excellent reference book for people interested in the subject of wind energy.” (IEEE Power & Energy Magazine, November/December 2003) “deserves a place in the library of every university and college where renewable energy is taught.” (The International Journal of Electrical Engineering Education, Vol.41, No.2 April 2004) “a very comprehensive and well-organized treatment of the current status of wind power.” (Choice, Vol. 40, No. 4, December 2002)

Wind Power Generation is a concise, up-to-date and readable guide providing an introduction to one of the leading renewable power generation technologies. It includes detailed descriptions of on and offshore generation systems, and demystifies the relevant wind energy technology functions in practice as well as exploring the economic and environmental risk factors. Engineers, managers, policymakers and those involved in planning and delivering energy resources will find this reference a valuable guide, to help establish a reliable power supply address social and economic objectives. - Focuses on the evolution and developments in wind energy generation - Evaluates the economic and environmental viability of the systems with concise diagrams and accessible explanations

This enterprising book was intended as a practical guide to wind-energy generators up to 100 kW rated capacity. Very small machines such as battery chargers are included, though the main emphasis is on the 20 kW to 100 kW range. Wind-energy conversion systems are being purchased in increasing numbers in the UK. At the time of publication, they were used mainly in remote and island installations (especially on farms) to reduce dependence on conventional fuels such as oil and bottled gas. But the book was not just a practical handbook for those who already had a machine; it supplied sufficient information to allow potential purchasers to decide whether the installation of such a generator would be cost-effective in their own particular circumstances.

The availability of clean, renewable power is without question going to be the defining challenge and goal of the 21st century, and wind will lead the way. Internationally acclaimed wind energy expert Paul Gipe is as soberly critical of past energy mistakes as he is convincingly optimistic about the future. The overwhelming challenge of transforming our world from one of fossil carbon to one of clean power seems daunting at best—and paralyzingly impractical at worst. Wind Energy Basics offers a solution. Wind power can realistically not only replace the lion’s share of oil-, coal-, and naturalgas– fired electrical plants in the U.S., but also can add enough extra power capacity to allow for most of the cars in the nation to run on electricity. Gipe explains why such a startlingly straightforward solution is eminently doable and can be accomplished much sooner than previously thought—and will have the capacity to resuscitate small and regional economies. Wind Energy Basics offers a how-to for home-based wind applications, with advice on which wind turbines to choose and which to avoid. He guides wind-energy installers through considerations such as renewable investment strategies and gives cautionary tales of wind applications gone wrong. And for the activist, he suggests methods of prodding federal, state, and provincial governments to promote energy independence.

There is huge potential for smaller wind turbines to provide clean energy around the world. Small wind turbines come in a variety of designs, and have similarities in principles and technology to small hydrokinetic turbines (SHKTs). SHKTs, in turn, can play an important role in hydropower. Small wind and hydrokinetic systems can even work together, for example, to power farms, communities, campuses, rural as well as remote rural areas, and island regions.