Electromagnetic Design and Physical Validation of a Micro Wind Turbine Energy System

With the development of large-scale wind turbines for offshore and onshore applications, wind energy has become an excellent green alternative to conventional thermal power plants with continual growth around the world. However, small wind turbines have a residual market, focused on isolated off-grid applications.

New self-consumption regulations allow the end-user to generate their own energy, injecting the electricity produced from wind energy into the mains. In this sense, small wind energy systems can be a complement or even an alternative to photovoltaic energy which nowadays leads the self-consumption market.

This article presents the design workflow of a new electric generator, as well as the power control system of a grid-tied micro wind energy system for self-consumption purposes. A low speed high-efficiency generator was developed using FEA tools to reduce the design phase and trials. Different control algorithms were simulated allowing the optimization of the system. Finally, a prototype was tested to validate the performed models.