Wind Turbine

ABSTRACT

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1         Background

        Wind is used as a source of energy for millennia. It is generally one of the natural power sources which are economical and available in excess quantity. In Latin, wind is called as ventus. There is enough wind globally to satisfy much of our energy requirements, if it could be harvested effectively on a large scale. Wind energy is a viable option to complement other types of pollution-free generation. Wind turbine technologies have evolved over centuries from traditional wind mills to the sleek and robust turbines nowadays. It has become one of the reliable sources for major industry since last 20 years. The general of installing wind farm on the location with adequate wind speed become increasingly rare. The current trends tends to implement wind farms off shore or to provide wind turbine on high rise building which would ultimately lead to development of inner-city wind power application and such trend would ultimately lead to avoid the transmission loss as the energy will be utilized were it will be produced.

        Wind is categorized as one of renewable energy, same goes with solar, geothermal, hydro and biomass. Among the renewable energy sources, wind energy is one of the fastest growing energy source which is grows at rate of 30% from annual graph. Renewable energy is important and good to be developed because it is clean, consonance with nature and it comes from nature without polluting it. In addition, it is abundant and free. So it is a wise choice to use them.

        Nowadays people charge their mobile phone in any of desired phone socket, but there are also people who still have to illuminate their home with kerosene lamp, students which can’t study during nighttime and also vegetable that cannot be stored in a fridge. On the contrary, there are also people who despite of having electricity still have problem with electric cut off. Even there are places that don’t have electricity access, like poorest and isolated rural areas of developing countries.

        The ideas of developing wind turbine generator would make difference in living condition of such people. A turbine is types of machine that transform rotational energy or kinetic energy from reaction or impulse or both of a current of fluid like water, steam or air that is picked up by a rotor system into a usable energy or work. Turbines work through a principle of mechanical gearing or electromagnetic induction that later produce electricity.. The word ‘turbine’ is called turbo or vortex in Latin and it was introduced by a French mining engineer called Claude Burdin.

        Wind turbines have several different design concepts. There are Horizontal Axis Wind Turbines (HAWT) and Vertical Axis Wind Turbines (VAWT). HAWT have the rotor upwind which is facing the wind or downwind so that the wind will pass the tower and nacelle before it hits the rotor. Meanwhile, VAWT is commonly function nearer to the ground and has the benefit of enabling placement of heavy equipment such as the gearbox and generator, close to the ground level and not in the nacelle.

        In this project, the VAWT is made because it has merit of producing a lot of power, simpler and significantly cheaper to build and maintain than HAWT. Three types of different blade material are used to determine which material produce more power than the others. This project seen may help the electricity problem in rural areas. By doing this project, community from rural area may enjoy the electricity and thus, the electricity problem on their place can be decreased too.