WIND ENERGY HANDBOOK By Tony Burton, David Sharpe, Nick Jenkins and Ervin Bossanyi

WIND ENERGY HANDBOOK By Tony Burton, David Sharpe, Nick Jenkins and Ervin Bossanyi

Contents:

Chapter 1 Introduction

Chapter 2 The Wind Resource

Chapter 3 Aerodynamics of Horizontal-axis Wind Turbines

Chapter 4 Wind-turbine Performance

Chapter 5 Design Loads for Horizontal-axis Wind Turbines

Chapter 6 Conceptual Design of Horizontal Axis Wind Turbines

Chapter 7 Component Design

Chapter 8 The Controller

Chapter 9 Wind-turbine Installations and Wind Farms

Chapter 10 Electrical Systems

Preface:

Windmills have been used for at least 3000 years, mainly for grinding grain or pumping water, while in sailing ships the wind has been an essential source of power for even longer. From as early as the thirteenth century, horizontal-axis windmills were an integral part of the rural economy and only fell into disuse with the advent of cheap fossil-fuelled engines and then the spread of rural electrification. The use of windmills (or wind turbines) to generate electricity can be traced back to the late nineteenth century with the 12 kW DC windmill generator constructed by Brush in the USA and the research undertaken by LaCour in Denmark. However, for much of the twentieth century there was little interest in using wind energy other than for battery charging for remote dwellings and these

low-power systems were quickly replaced once access to the electricity grid became available. One notable exception was the 1250 kW Smith–Putnam wind turbine constructed in the USA in 1941. This remarkable machine had a steel rotor 53 m in diameter, full-span pitch control and flapping blades to reduce loads. Although a blade spar failed catastrophically in 1945, it remained the largest wind turbine constructed for some 40 years (Putnam, 1948). Golding (1955) and Shepherd and Divone in Spera (1994) provide a fascinating history of early wind turbine development. They record the 100 kW 30 m diameter Balaclava wind turbine in the then USSR in 1931 and the Andrea Enfield 100 kW 24 m diameter pneumatic design constructed in the UK in the early 1950s. In this turbine hollow blades, open at the tip, were used to draw air up through the tower where another turbine drove the generator. In Denmark the 200 kW 24 m diameter Gedser machine was built in 1956 while Electricite ´ de France tested a 1.1 MW 35 m diameter turbine in 1963. In Germany, Professor Hutter constructed a number of innovative, lightweight turbines in the 1950s and 1960s. In spite of these technical advances and the enthusiasm, among others, of Golding at the Electrical Research Association in the UK there was little sustained interest in wind generation until the price of oil rose dramatically in 1973.