The Windgate turbine is the latest wind energy in the home

The modern economy dictates to the global community ever-increasing energy prices. Therefore, the owners of villas, country houses, cottage villages pay more and more attention to alternative, renewable sources of energy and their use in everyday life.

The use of wind energy, mankind began a long time ago, and recently everything here is aimed at developing the latest technologies for the production of electricity in order to reduce its costs. It is one of these current trends in global wind energy that will be discussed in our article today.

A little background on Windgate turbines

From time immemorial, in its understanding of the use of wind energy, mankind has moved from the origin with its windmills and eventually arrived at the modern "Propeller" wind turbines, and now also on wind turbines.

Most recently, the American company WindTronics presented to the public its child, a new development of a compact unique wind turbine, which is focused on its use in the private sector and is capable of generating electricity in almost calm weather when the wind speed is only 3 km / h.

About a small wind power and especially in calm areas, when the wind speed here is a little higher than 3 km / h - you have to agree, they rarely tell us, unless something special, incredible happened. But everything in this life changes with time. What is special in the field of wind energy - WindDronics, one of the divisions of the American company EarthTronics, offers us?

In late 2009, wind turbines began to appear on the American market under the Honeywell Wind Turbine brand. windgate turbine units, with their cost of about 4.5 thousand US dollars per unit. These units are manufactured by the industrial giant Honeywell, and the development of the latest technologies belongs to WindTronics.

Honeywell WT6500 Wind Turbine

A little about the technical characteristics of the Windgate installation.

A large-diameter turbine (windmill) of this device rotates on a horizontal axis and is intended for installation on the roof of a house or summer cottage. The ends of the Windgate turbine blades are equipped with permanent magnets, resulting in a kind of huge rotor rotating in the housing - the stator of this installation.

On the surface, the Windgate is a giant turbine that looks like a large fan.

The main characteristics of the turbine are as follows:

• Diameter of the turbine impeller (rotor) — 1.7 m or 1.8 m.

• Material of production — stainless steel.

• The minimum possible wind speed to start the turbine is 0.45-0.9 m / s.

• Annual energy production when operating in the wind zone of class 4 — 2000 kW.

• Expected operational life — 20 years.

• Generator type — permanent magnet generator.

• Weight of the unit — about 45 kg.

The wind turbine has a system that allows charging batteries, that is, accumulating energy for its subsequent consumption, if necessary.

Energy production versus wind speed in the Windgate area is shown in the graph below, taken from the Honeywell website.

Wind turbine power versus wind speed

The power generated by any wind farm is a function of the cube of the wind speed. If its speed is doubled, the power of the wind farm will increase eight times. However, we are considering a wind farm with a turbine that already works with light wind, but for a long time - is able to "step up" to produce much more energy than conventional wind generators.

Design features of the Windgate wind turbine:

• A distinctive and main feature of this «wind turbine» installation is that the stator of this wind power plant (wind power plant) is the outer shell of the turbine itself (the wind wheel), and the rotor is the rotating turbine itself, i.e. , the installation wheel.

• The unit is designed to operate in the Class 4 wind zone prevailing in the USA.What class is this and what is the wind speed in it? Wind speed class 4 means that in this area the average annual wind speed is about 19 km/h or 5.45 m/s (12.2 mph).

• The blades of most wind generators start rotating at a minimum wind speed of about 3.5 m / s and continue to rotate up to a wind speed of 11.2 m / s, which is limited by vibrations from above. The turbine of the Windgate wind turbine starts its rotation already at a wind speed of 0.45 m / s and continues to work even at a maximum wind speed of 20.1 m / s (72 km / h)! It has been calculated by calculation that the turbine's wind turbine is 50% more efficient than traditional wind farm.

• The automation of this wind turbine continuously determines the speed and direction of the wind, and in the case of its maximum operating setting, it rotates the turbine sideways to the wind. Likewise, the automation controls the wind turbine in case of rain and cold temperatures, which can cause icing of the turbine blades.

• To run a wind turbine, you need at least one standard car battery, preferably two. In this case, one battery serves to accumulate energy in it, and the second is a source of energy, which the inverter with a constant voltage of 12V, issued by the generator, converts into alternating current - with a voltage of 220V.

Windgate turbine

Looking for more economical and renewable energy sources — from time to time they are crowned with local success, and we are getting closer and closer to future-proof green energy generation technologies of the future.