Small-Scale Wind Power

In today's world, clean and robust energy sources are being
sought to provide power to residences, commercial operations,
and manufacturing enterprises. Among the most appealing
energy sources is wind power-with its high reliability and
low environmental impact. Wind power's rapid penetration
into markets throughout the world has taken many forms, and
this book discusses the types of wind power, as well as the
appropriate decisions that need to be made regarding wind
power design, testing, installation, and analysis.
Inside, the authors detail the design of various small-wind
systems including horizontal-axis wind turbines (HAWTs) and
vertical-axis wind turbines (VAWTs). The design of wind turbines
takes advantage of many avenues of investigation, all of which
are included in the book. Analytical methods that have been
developed over the past few decades are major methods used
for design. Alternatively, experimentation (typically using scaled
models in wind tunnels) and numerical simulation (using modern
computational fluid dynamic software) are also used and will be
dealt with in depth.
In addition to the analysis of wind turbine performance, it is
important for users to assess the economic benefits of using wind
power. An entire chapter of this book is devoted to this topic,
as well as case studies that help elucidate the issues that you'll
need to consider, from siting and mechanical complications, to
performance and maintenance.