Download Small Wind Turbines for Electricity and Irrigation Design and Construction by Mario Alejandro Rosato
Contents of Small Wind Turbines for Electricity and Irrigation Design and Construction
2. General Theory of Wind-Driven Machines
3. Simplified Aerodynamic Theory for the Design of the Rotor’s Blades
4. Practical Design of Horizontal Axis Wind Turbines
5. Practical Design of Aerodynamic Action Vertical Axis Wind Turbines
6. Practical Design of Savonius Turbines and Derived Models
7. Engineering of the Support Structures for Wind Turbines
8. Probability Distribution of the Wind Speed and Preliminary Design of Wind Power Installations
9. Sizing Energy Storage Systems
10. Design of Wind Pumping Systems
11. Unconventional Wind-Driven Machines
12. Aerodynamic Characteristics of Blunt Bodies and Airfoils
Preface of Small Wind Turbines for Electricity and Irrigation Design and Construction
of renewable energies, because anybody can build a windmill, a digester, or a thermal solar collector, even with scrap material, without depending on sophisticated technologies and exotic materials.
Among the said three energy sources, small wind power installations provide mechanical work, which—in thermodynamic terms—is the highest quality of energy. Small wind power systems are then one of the three pillars for a sustainable society, based on circular economy. At the end of the 1980s, in spite of the Chernobyl disaster and the growing perception of the negative environmental impact of fossil fuels, many people in the so-called industrialized societies still considered small standalone energy systems as suitable only for remote rural areas, where standard financial analysis shows that it does not pay off to bring an electric line. During the last decades, politicians, industrialists, and economists in all countries have often criticized and even opposed small-scale initiatives for the energy independence of families or communities.
The general dogma of “scale economy” pushes in the direction of gigantic infrastructures that tend to perpetuate the linear business model, based on centralized generation (more or less monopolized), energy transmission (often along huge distances), and passive, energy-dependent consumers. Society has evolved, and a growing number of citizens became aware that modern society needs to change its consumerist attitude; otherwise the planet will not survive. Large sectors of the population now search for their energy independence, based on renewable sources, even when traditional reductive economic criteria seem to show that taking electricity and gas from the grid is cheaper.
In some countries, for instance, Spain, the political class has virtually banned the installation of small stand-alone energy systems by taxing and putting unnecessary bureaucratic burden on them, in an attempt to protect the interests of big energy companies. In the time elapsed between the publication of my first book and the present, the population has grown from 5.5 billion to 7.5 billion souls.
Climate change has become more severe and the number of people lacking access to energy has grown exponentially, both in developing and industrialized countries. Increasingly, severe draughts and desertification are the cause of widespread social tensions and war, which push entire populations to abandon their homelands, seeking a better life.
Yet the solution to such global problems could be very simple and does not require high investments: empowering people to adopt circular economy practices and promote food, water, and energy autonomy. There is no need for high-tech solutions, nor is there a universal technology that can work efficiently at any scale and in any geographical context. Small wind power systems are just one of the alternatives in the designer’s or the decision maker’s toolbox to provide a simple solution to mankind’s growing demand for energy.
With much of Carl Sagan’s creative and skeptic spirit, and the retrospective vision of almost three decades of evolution of the renewable energies market, I decided to write this book. This time in English, in order to reach a wider public.
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