Introduction to Wind Turbine Technology - Small Wind Turbines: Analysis, Design, and Application - page 25

Table 1.8 The percentage
installed costs for the
Aerogenesis 5 kW turbine
shown in Fig. 1.2

Component Percentage of total cost

Blades 7

Platform, tail fin 5

Gearbox, generator, brake 6

Nose cone and cover 3

Controller/inverter 18

Tower 32

Installation and grid connection 29

favourite, but no longer in print, is Eggleston and Stoddard [ 21 ] with its detailed
treatment of blade and turbine dynamics. The more recent topic on large turbines
by Burton et al. [ 2 ] is probably the closest in scope to the present.
Wind energy is fortunate in having a number of excellent web sites, such as the
Danish Wind Turbine Manufacturers site: http://www.windpower.org/ . Related
information is available from the American Wind Energy Association site:
http://awea.org along with a list of, and contact details for, American manufac-
turers of small turbines. The British Wind Energy Association, now known as
Renewable UK: http://www.bwea.com/ has a lot of information on small turbine
issues. The U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has probably
done more than any other organisation to promote and develop small wind energy
technology. To reach their extensive range of publically-available reports on small
wind turbine testing and development go to http://www.nrel.gov/wind/pubs_

research.html#turbine
The Nordic Folkecenter for Renewable Energy in Denmark publishes an annual
catalogue of small wind turbines. Further information from [e-mail].
The German Wind Energy Association (BWE) produces a similar market survey
for large and small turbines available from: http://www.wind-energie.de/de/
publikationen/ which is also highly recommended.
The IEC standards covering most aspects of large and small wind turbine
design and safety, performance evaluation can be found at www.iec.ch . However,
the standards are expensive!
Readers intending to proceed to the subsequent chapters are warned that their
knowledge of basic fluid mechanics will be tested. If you wish to revise, or to
learn, the necessary background material, then you should consult an introductory
text, such as White [ 10 ].

1.9.2 Exercises

1. In the Preface and at the start of Sect. 1.2 it was stated that a rotor swept area of
200 m 2 corresponds to a rated power of about 50 kW. Taking the rated wind
speed as 10 m/s, check whether that statement is valid.
2. Check the units of Example 1.2.