Wind Turbines

Explains the key aspects of wind turbine technology and its application in a single readable text.

Wind power is a pillar of low emission energy systems. Many recent advances have been achieved in multiple aspects of utility-scale wind power. This structured review conveys recent progress involving aerodynamics, layout, control, environmental concerns, forecasting and intermittency, combination with PV and offshore farms.

This textbook is intended to provide an introduction to the cross-disciplinary field of wind engineering. It includes end-of-chapter tutorial sections (solutions manual available) and combines both academic and industrial experience.

Wind Turbines addresses all those professionally involved in research, development, manufacture and operation of wind turbines. It provides a cross-disciplinary overview of modern wind turbine technology and an orientation in the associated technical, economic and environmental fields. It is based on the author's experience gained over decades designing wind energy converters with a major industrial manufacturer and, more recently, in technical consulting and in the planning of large wind park installations, with special attention to economics. The second edition accounts for the emerging concerns over increasing numbers of installed wind turbines. In particular, an important new chapter has been added which deals with offshore wind utilisation. All advanced chapters have been extensively revised and in some cases considerably extended

Over the last five years an enormous number of wind turbines have been installed in Europe, bringing wind energy into public awareness. However, its further development is restricted mainly by public complaints caused by visual impact and noise. The European Commission has therefore funded a number of research projects in the field of wind turbine noise within the JOULE program. This book presents the most relevant results of these projects. The book addresses all relevant aspects of wind turbine noise, namely: noise reduction, noise propagation, noise measurement, and an introduction to aeroacoustics. It may serve as a first reference in the field of wind turbine noise for researchers, planners, and manufacturers.

Energy security, rising energy prices (oil, gas, electricity), 'peak oil', environmental pollution, nuclear energy, climate change and sustainable living are hot topics across the globe. Meanwhile, abundant and perpetual wind resources offer opportunities, via recent technological developments, to provide part of the solution to address these key issues. The rapid growth of large-scale wind farm installations has now led to the generation of clean electricity for tens of millions of homes around the world. However, despite the potential to reduce the losses and costs associated with transmission and to use local wind acceleration techniques to improve energy yields, the potential for urban wind energy has yet to be realised. Although there is increasing public interest, the uptake of urban wind energy in suitable areas has been slow. This is in part due to a lack of understanding of key issues such as: available wind resources; technology integration; planning processes (include assessment of environmental impacts and public safety due to close proximity to people and property); energy consumption in buildings versus energy production from turbines; economics (including grants, subsidies, maintenance); and the effect of complex urban windscapes on performance. Urban Wind Energy attempts to illuminate these areas, addressing common concerns highlighting pitfalls, offering real world examples and providing a framework to assess viability in energy, environmental and economic terms. It is a comprehensive guide to urban wind energy for architects, engineers, planners, developers, investors, policy-makers, manufacturers and students as well as community organisations and home-owners interested in generating their own clean electricity.

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.

An illustrated guide to building and installing a wind turbine and understanding how the energy in moving air is transformed into electricity.