Renewable distributed generation such as wind power and photovoltaics are gaining popularity all over the world. The overall aim of this Master thesis was to gather experience and knowledge regarding small wind power and photovoltaic with both a market based evaluation and technical description. Methods used have been literature review, interviews with market participants, evaluation of a wind mill and a photovoltaic system simulation with PVsyst 5.41. It was found that the main common incentive today for the development and spread of small wind power and photovoltaics for market participants is the symbolic value. It was also discovered that the market situation is complicated for the producing consumer. The spread of small wind power and PV today are a few per mille of a future potential, where politics largely control development and spread of small-scale solutions. The market is unclear and solutions around net charge is still an ongoing debate. Majority of the interviewed persons believes more in PV than in small wind power due to facts such as wind power is size-dependent and not optimal to build in urban areas. Results show that power quality issues are dependent on the network system as a whole and are often a matter of cost and can be prevented with different technical solutions. One conclusion was that bidirectional power flow increase complexity of problems around protection. Major energy companies are involved in projects to gather knowledge how to deal with DG both in technical aspects and how to deal with customers practically.

A small wind turbine blade was designed, fabricated and tested in this study. The power performance of small horizontal axis wind turbines was simulated in detail using modified blade element momentum methods (BEM). Various factors such as tip loss, drag coefficient, and wake were considered. The simulation was validated by experimental data collected from a small wind turbine Bergey XL 1.0. A new blade was designed for the Bergey XL 1.0 after comparing three types of aerodynamic blade structures and their related performance, and then the detailed blade structure was determined. The performance of the new rotor at different additional pitch angles was simulated and compared with the original Bergey XL 1.0 rotor. To fabricate prototypes of the new blades, a resin transfer moulding (RTM) system was designed and built. Three blades were fabricated successfully and installed on the hub of an existing Bergey XL 1.0. In a vehicle-based test system, the new blades were tested at the original designed pitch angle, plus at additional 5° and 9° pitch angles. The +5° rotor reached maximum power of 1889 W at wind velocity 13.6 m/s. The +9° rotor performed over a wider wind velocity range and output slightly lower power than the original Bergey XL 1.0. The new blades have better aerodynamic performance than original Bergey XL 1.0. / Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) New Directions Research Program and the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) Chair in Environmental Design Engineering at the University of Guelph

Master of Science / Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering / Anil Pahwa / With the Smart Grid trend setting in, various techniques to make the existing grid smarter are being considered. The price of electricity is one of the major factors, which affects the electric utility as well as the numerous consumers connected to the grid. Therefore deciding the right price of electricity for the time of day would be an important decision to make. Consumers’ response to this change in price will impact peak demand as well as their own annual energy bill. Owning a small wind generator under the Critical Peak Pricing (CPP) and Time of Use (TOU) price-based demand response programs could be a viable option. Economic evaluation of owning a small wind generator under the two pricing schemes, namely Critical Peak Pricing (CPP) and Time of Use (TOU), is the main focus of this research. Analysis shows that adopting either of the pricing schemes will not change the annual energy bill for the consumer. Taking into account the installed cost of the turbine, it may not be significantly economical for a residential homeowner to own a small wind turbine with either of the pricing schemes in effect under the conditions assumed.

Master of Science / Department of Electrical Engineering / William B. Kuhn / During the development of an educational renewable energy production platform, it was found that there were no low-cost, efficient grid-tie interfaces for a 160 W DC wind turbine. Typically, a small DC wind turbine is used in conjunction with a rechargeable battery bank or, if the wind turbine is directly interfaced with a grid-tie inverter, a regulator with a diversion-load. The use of batteries is undesirable due to their high-cost and high-maintenance characteristics. Diversion loads by nature waste power, as any excess energy that cannot be accepted by a battery or inverter is usually converted into heat through a resistive element. Initially, a 24 V DC, 160 W Air Breeze small wind turbine was directly connected to an Enphase Energy M190 grid-tie micro-inverter. The 24 V DC Air Breeze wind turbine is designed to charge a battery or bank of batteries while the M190 micro-inverter is designed to convert the DC output of a 200 W solar panel to grid-tied AC power. As expected, the power-production response time associated with the small wind turbine and the power-accepting, load-matching response time of the micro-inverter were not compatible. The rapidly changing power output of the small wind turbine conflicted with the slow response time of the micro-inverter resulting in little power production. Ultimately, the response time mismatch also produced sufficiently large voltage spikes to damage the turbine electronics. In this thesis, a solution for a low-cost, efficient grid-tie interface using no batteries and no diversion load is presented. A capacitance of eight Farads is placed in parallel with the small wind turbine and the micro inverter. The large capacitance sufficiently smoothes the potential abrupt voltage changes produced by the wind turbine, allowing the micro-inverter adequate time to adjust its load for optimal power conversion. Laboratory experiments and data from an implementation of such a parallel super capacitor wind turbine to grid-tie micro-inverter configuration are provided along with DC and AC power production monitoring circuits interfaced with a micro controller.

<p><strong>AIM</strong>: As global warming is a fact and the consumption of energy is continuously increasing, alternative sourcing of energy is a must. The use of oil and coal for heating is limited due to it is nature resource which is also limited. Everyone will be forced to evaluate their own usage of energy and look into the alternatives of how to be a part of solving this global issue. For many, alternatives such as sun panels and wind power stations could be an alternative power source.</p><p> </p><p>Today, there is only a limited availability in Sweden of small sized wind power stations and only small local producers or importers that sell the equipment – mostly through internet based market communications.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Method</strong>: The theoretical approach to this thesis is based on the MIO model in combination with several other models and tools such as, PESTEL, Marketing Mix, SWOT, Porter’s five forces, EVC and STP.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Result & Conclusions</strong>: There is a market for small wind power stations between 5 – 50 kW in Sweden.</p><p>The biggest reason why the market segment exist and will increase is due to continuously increasing energy prices and that wind power stations of this size are permitted to be connected directly to household consumption.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Suggestions for future research</strong>: How are other energy complements like solar panels influenced? What governmental decisions affect the business of small wind power stations?</p><p> </p><p><strong>Contributions to the thesis</strong>: Success in this segment requires a different approach to product offering than what the current competition is doing.</p>

AIM: As global warming is a fact and the consumption of energy is continuously increasing, alternative sourcing of energy is a must. The use of oil and coal for heating is limited due to it is nature resource which is also limited. Everyone will be forced to evaluate their own usage of energy and look into the alternatives of how to be a part of solving this global issue. For many, alternatives such as sun panels and wind power stations could be an alternative power source.   Today, there is only a limited availability in Sweden of small sized wind power stations and only small local producers or importers that sell the equipment – mostly through internet based market communications.   Method: The theoretical approach to this thesis is based on the MIO model in combination with several other models and tools such as, PESTEL, Marketing Mix, SWOT, Porter’s five forces, EVC and STP.   Result &amp; Conclusions: There is a market for small wind power stations between 5 – 50 kW in Sweden. The biggest reason why the market segment exist and will increase is due to continuously increasing energy prices and that wind power stations of this size are permitted to be connected directly to household consumption.   Suggestions for future research: How are other energy complements like solar panels influenced? What governmental decisions affect the business of small wind power stations?   Contributions to the thesis: Success in this segment requires a different approach to product offering than what the current competition is doing.

In this thesis, the reliability of small wind turbines is studied. Both conventional reliability analysis methods and the novel Bayesian models (Bayesian Hierarchical Modelling (BHM)) are used to analyse the reliability performance of the Gaia-Wind turbines / assemblies and components of the Gaia-Wind turbine. In Chapter 2, a simple failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) is conducted. An approximated risk priority number (RPN) is calculated for each failure mode and assembly. The assembly that is identified to have the highest RPN is the "Rotor and Blade Assembly". As for the failure modes, "Blade Split" and "Generator Failure" failure modes are identified to have the highest RPNs. In Chapter 3, the conventional methods including the Kaplan-Meier Analysis, Weibull Plot Analysis, Homogeneous Poisson Process (HPP) Analysis, and Crow-AMSAA (Non-Homogeneous Poisson Process (NHPP)) Analysis are used to study the reliability performance of the generic turbine and the critical assemblies based on the approximated RPNs. By using these conventional methods, the L10 life can be approximated (Kaplan-Meier), the main failure modes of an assembly can be identified (Weibull Plot Analysis), the annual failure rate can be estimated (HPP), and the number of future failures can be predicted (NHPP). These methods have been implemented in a novel on-line interactive platform, named ReliaOS (Chapter 7), which effectively facilitates the process of converting the information in the warranty record to the meaningful reliability information. Three novel BHM models are proposed and implemented in WinBUGS (an open source software), namely the repair model, the environmental model, and the informative prior framework, (Chapter 5 and Chapter 6). The repair model is used to quantify the repair effectiveness of a generic repair action. The model is applied on both the turbine level as well as the component level. At the turbine level, the annual failure rate of the generic turbine is predicted to be 0:159 per turbine per year at the first year. Individual turbines can be categorised into different quality levels ("Good", "Good- Normal", "Normal", "Normal-Bad", and "Bad") based on the predicted annual failure rate values. At the component level, "Blade split", "Cracked Frame", and "Generator Failure" failure modes are studied. These are the most critical failure modes for "Rotor and Blade Assembly", "Tower, Foundation, and Nacelle", and "Generator" assemblies respectively. "Cracked Frame" failure mode is predicted to have the lowest characteristic life and a slightly increasing failure rate trend. The repair effectiveness of the "Cracked Frame" failure mode is identified to be slightly ineffective. The environmental model quantifies the influence of three environmental covariates, i.e. AverageWind Speed (AWS), Turbulence Intensity (TI), and Terrain Slope (TS). These environmental covariates are all identified to have negative impact to the reliability of the generic turbine, where TI and AWS have more pronounced impact than TS. The informative prior BHM framework offers a way of quantifying the reliability of the drivetrain frame (which corresponds to the "Cracked Frame" failure mode) in a situation where zero failure instance is recorded for the new drivetrain frame design. This is achieved by jointly considering the simulation results from SOLIDWORKS as the prior information into the BHM model. This thesis strives to understand the reliability performance of the Gaia-Wind small wind turbine from different perspectives, i.e. the generic turbine, individual turbines, and the components, by the use of conventional methods and the proposed BHM models. The novel on-line reliability platform, ReliaOS, mitigates the difficulties in converting the information in the data to the reliability information for the end users. It is believed that the proposed BHM models and the ReliaOS on-line reliability analysis platform will improve the reliability analysis of small-wind turbines.

Este trabalho apresenta a avaliação experimental em túnel aerodinâmico de características de dois aerogeradores de pequeno porte com cinco pás. Para isso, utilizando-se prototipagem 3D, construíram-se dois modelos em escala reduzida, os quais foram avaliados primeiramente utilizando-se Pás Ótimas de Betz e depois Pás Ótimas de Betz Modificadas. Antes de se avaliar o equipamento determinou-se a distribuição de velocidades na seção transversal do túnel com o auxílio de um tubo de Pitot. Com o perfil de velocidades do túnel conhecido, determina-se o torque estático do protótipo com o uso de um torquímetro digital acoplado ao eixo do equipamento, que registrou todas as leituras para as faixas de velocidade de 1 m/s até 9,88 m/s. Também com o torquímetro avalia-se a influência da posição angular das pás no torque medido. Para tanto, elas são projetadas móveis no hub, o que possibilitou variar sua angulação em relação ao escoamento, mudando assim o ângulo de ataque e, por conseguinte o torque produzido. Empregou-se um foto tacômetro para medir a rotação do modelo em giro livre. Com os dados obtidos, determina-se a curva de torque estático e a curva de RPM em função da velocidade incidente. Através da determinação experimental do perfil de velocidade incidente e do perfil de velocidade na esteira aerodinâmica de cada turbina é avaliada a variação da quantidade de movimento do escoamento e determinada a potência extraída pelos rotores em rotação livre. Este estudo visa contribuir com o projeto de um aerogerador real, prevendo as características aerodinâmicas que o equipamento apresentará se construído com o presente layout. Com os dados analisados se faz uma previsão para as curvas de potência dos protótipos. Os resultados experimentais de torque e potência demonstram boa aproximação com os resultados obtidos por avaliação analítica pelo método do elemento de pá. A prototipagem 3D administrada se mostrou eficaz traduzindo realismo e excelente custo-benefício. A turbina construída com Pás Ótimas de Betz apresentou torque estático 17,8% superior à construída com as Pás Modificadas e extraiu 22% a mais de potência do escoamento de ar. / This paper presents the experimental evaluation in wind tunnel of two small wind turbines features five blades. Therefore, using 3D prototyping, two models were built on a reduced scale, which were first evaluated using Optimal Blade Betz and Optimal Blade Betz Modified. Prior to evaluating the distribution machine at speeds determined in the tunnel cross-section with the aid of a Pitot tube. With the known tunnel velocity profile, determines the static torque of the prototype with the use of a digital torquimeter coupled to the machine axis, which recorded all the readings for the speed range of 1 m/s to 9,88 m/s. Also with the torquimeter evaluates the influence of the angular position of the blades in the measured torque. Therefore, it is mobile designed in the hub, allowing vary their angle in the outflow, thereby changing the angle of attack and therefore the torque produced. Employed a photo tachometer for measuring the rotation of the model in free spin. With the data, determines the static torque curve and RPM curve as a function of incident speed. Through experimental determination of the incident velocity profile and the velocity profile in the aerodynamic wake of each turbine is evaluated the variation of the amount of movement of the flow and determined the power extracted by the rotor in free rotation. This study aims to contribute to the design of a real wind turbine informing the aerodynamic characteristics of the equipment shall be constructed with this layout. With the data analyzed to make a prediction for the prototype power curves. The experimental results demonstrate torque and power good approximation to the results obtained by evaluation by analytical element of the paddle method. The turbine constructed with Optimal Betz Blades presented static torque 17,8% higher than constructed with the Modified Blades and extracted 22% more power air outflow.

Este trabalho apresenta a avaliação experimental em túnel aerodinâmico de características de dois aerogeradores de pequeno porte com cinco pás. Para isso, utilizando-se prototipagem 3D, construíram-se dois modelos em escala reduzida, os quais foram avaliados primeiramente utilizando-se Pás Ótimas de Betz e depois Pás Ótimas de Betz Modificadas. Antes de se avaliar o equipamento determinou-se a distribuição de velocidades na seção transversal do túnel com o auxílio de um tubo de Pitot. Com o perfil de velocidades do túnel conhecido, determina-se o torque estático do protótipo com o uso de um torquímetro digital acoplado ao eixo do equipamento, que registrou todas as leituras para as faixas de velocidade de 1 m/s até 9,88 m/s. Também com o torquímetro avalia-se a influência da posição angular das pás no torque medido. Para tanto, elas são projetadas móveis no hub, o que possibilitou variar sua angulação em relação ao escoamento, mudando assim o ângulo de ataque e, por conseguinte o torque produzido. Empregou-se um foto tacômetro para medir a rotação do modelo em giro livre. Com os dados obtidos, determina-se a curva de torque estático e a curva de RPM em função da velocidade incidente. Através da determinação experimental do perfil de velocidade incidente e do perfil de velocidade na esteira aerodinâmica de cada turbina é avaliada a variação da quantidade de movimento do escoamento e determinada a potência extraída pelos rotores em rotação livre. Este estudo visa contribuir com o projeto de um aerogerador real, prevendo as características aerodinâmicas que o equipamento apresentará se construído com o presente layout. Com os dados analisados se faz uma previsão para as curvas de potência dos protótipos. Os resultados experimentais de torque e potência demonstram boa aproximação com os resultados obtidos por avaliação analítica pelo método do elemento de pá. A prototipagem 3D administrada se mostrou eficaz traduzindo realismo e excelente custo-benefício. A turbina construída com Pás Ótimas de Betz apresentou torque estático 17,8% superior à construída com as Pás Modificadas e extraiu 22% a mais de potência do escoamento de ar. / This paper presents the experimental evaluation in wind tunnel of two small wind turbines features five blades. Therefore, using 3D prototyping, two models were built on a reduced scale, which were first evaluated using Optimal Blade Betz and Optimal Blade Betz Modified. Prior to evaluating the distribution machine at speeds determined in the tunnel cross-section with the aid of a Pitot tube. With the known tunnel velocity profile, determines the static torque of the prototype with the use of a digital torquimeter coupled to the machine axis, which recorded all the readings for the speed range of 1 m/s to 9,88 m/s. Also with the torquimeter evaluates the influence of the angular position of the blades in the measured torque. Therefore, it is mobile designed in the hub, allowing vary their angle in the outflow, thereby changing the angle of attack and therefore the torque produced. Employed a photo tachometer for measuring the rotation of the model in free spin. With the data, determines the static torque curve and RPM curve as a function of incident speed. Through experimental determination of the incident velocity profile and the velocity profile in the aerodynamic wake of each turbine is evaluated the variation of the amount of movement of the flow and determined the power extracted by the rotor in free rotation. This study aims to contribute to the design of a real wind turbine informing the aerodynamic characteristics of the equipment shall be constructed with this layout. With the data analyzed to make a prediction for the prototype power curves. The experimental results demonstrate torque and power good approximation to the results obtained by evaluation by analytical element of the paddle method. The turbine constructed with Optimal Betz Blades presented static torque 17,8% higher than constructed with the Modified Blades and extracted 22% more power air outflow.

Este trabalho apresenta a avaliação experimental em túnel aerodinâmico de características de dois aerogeradores de pequeno porte com cinco pás. Para isso, utilizando-se prototipagem 3D, construíram-se dois modelos em escala reduzida, os quais foram avaliados primeiramente utilizando-se Pás Ótimas de Betz e depois Pás Ótimas de Betz Modificadas. Antes de se avaliar o equipamento determinou-se a distribuição de velocidades na seção transversal do túnel com o auxílio de um tubo de Pitot. Com o perfil de velocidades do túnel conhecido, determina-se o torque estático do protótipo com o uso de um torquímetro digital acoplado ao eixo do equipamento, que registrou todas as leituras para as faixas de velocidade de 1 m/s até 9,88 m/s. Também com o torquímetro avalia-se a influência da posição angular das pás no torque medido. Para tanto, elas são projetadas móveis no hub, o que possibilitou variar sua angulação em relação ao escoamento, mudando assim o ângulo de ataque e, por conseguinte o torque produzido. Empregou-se um foto tacômetro para medir a rotação do modelo em giro livre. Com os dados obtidos, determina-se a curva de torque estático e a curva de RPM em função da velocidade incidente. Através da determinação experimental do perfil de velocidade incidente e do perfil de velocidade na esteira aerodinâmica de cada turbina é avaliada a variação da quantidade de movimento do escoamento e determinada a potência extraída pelos rotores em rotação livre. Este estudo visa contribuir com o projeto de um aerogerador real, prevendo as características aerodinâmicas que o equipamento apresentará se construído com o presente layout. Com os dados analisados se faz uma previsão para as curvas de potência dos protótipos. Os resultados experimentais de torque e potência demonstram boa aproximação com os resultados obtidos por avaliação analítica pelo método do elemento de pá. A prototipagem 3D administrada se mostrou eficaz traduzindo realismo e excelente custo-benefício. A turbina construída com Pás Ótimas de Betz apresentou torque estático 17,8% superior à construída com as Pás Modificadas e extraiu 22% a mais de potência do escoamento de ar. / This paper presents the experimental evaluation in wind tunnel of two small wind turbines features five blades. Therefore, using 3D prototyping, two models were built on a reduced scale, which were first evaluated using Optimal Blade Betz and Optimal Blade Betz Modified. Prior to evaluating the distribution machine at speeds determined in the tunnel cross-section with the aid of a Pitot tube. With the known tunnel velocity profile, determines the static torque of the prototype with the use of a digital torquimeter coupled to the machine axis, which recorded all the readings for the speed range of 1 m/s to 9,88 m/s. Also with the torquimeter evaluates the influence of the angular position of the blades in the measured torque. Therefore, it is mobile designed in the hub, allowing vary their angle in the outflow, thereby changing the angle of attack and therefore the torque produced. Employed a photo tachometer for measuring the rotation of the model in free spin. With the data, determines the static torque curve and RPM curve as a function of incident speed. Through experimental determination of the incident velocity profile and the velocity profile in the aerodynamic wake of each turbine is evaluated the variation of the amount of movement of the flow and determined the power extracted by the rotor in free rotation. This study aims to contribute to the design of a real wind turbine informing the aerodynamic characteristics of the equipment shall be constructed with this layout. With the data analyzed to make a prediction for the prototype power curves. The experimental results demonstrate torque and power good approximation to the results obtained by evaluation by analytical element of the paddle method. The turbine constructed with Optimal Betz Blades presented static torque 17,8% higher than constructed with the Modified Blades and extracted 22% more power air outflow.