Energy and economic assessment of a small domestic wind turbine in Palermo

Abstract

The cost effectiveness of micro-wind technology is closely linked to the annual energy production plants, which strongly depends on the wind characteristics and on the morphological properties of the installation site. The power curve of a wind turbine, supplied by manufacturers, characterizes the theoretical energy performance that it should have at a particular site. The behavior of a wind turbine in the field is affected by the speed but also by wind direction variations. At each change of direction and speed, the turbine will try to adapt to new conditions and the phase transition negatively influences the energy production. In order to experimentally confirm what above mentioned, the authors have built up a test facility and started a monitoring campaign in the urban area of Palermo. In particular, a micro wind turbine and a weather station were installed at the solar laboratory of DEIM. Thanks to data monitoring was possible a climate characterization of the site, and the evaluation of the experimental power curve of the turbine. The experimental data were discussed and compared to the manufactured data.