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not convinced that wind energy could play a significant role in
the energy supply of the developed world. A commercial wind
turbine from the late 1970s with a rotor diameter of 10 m to 15 m
could easily double the commercial energy supply to a village of
3000 people in developing countries but could only increase the
energy supply by 2% to 3% of a village of the same size in the
industrialised world. So wind energy, like solar energy, in my
view, could only play a significant role in developing countries, but
was bound to remain marginal in the industrialised world. In
developing countries the locally available wind (and solar) energy
could be used to improve the quality of life by supplying water for
irrigation, domestic use and cattle watering, by extending daily
workable hours (lighting), conservation of food (refrigeration)
and communication (powering radio, TV and much later PCs.)
NGOs and groups, often associated with universities and supported
by national governments, were established to utilise the wind
for energy supply to rural areas in developing countries. Using a
domestic energy source to meet the primary needs was considered
key for development and it would hardly draw on foreign currency.
Examples of these groups are CWD in the Netherlands, ITDG
in the United Kingdom, the BRACE Institute in Canada, IPAT in
Berlin, Folkecenter in Denmark and several groups connected to the
universities in various countries among in the USA, Sri Lanka, India
and Bolivia.
I started my wind energy career with Consultancy Services
Wind Energy Developing Countries (CWD, formerly SWD) to
develop water-pumping systems for irrigation and cattle watering
(see Fig. 2.1).
To that end I lived three months in Musoma, Tanzania, at
the shore of Lake Victoria and two months on the Cape Verdian
Islands. Having to deal with the basic needs of life and finding
energy sources to meet them, is an essential lesson. An energy
supply system should never be designed without taking energy
efficiency and conservation into account, a lesson which nowadays
is often forgotten. Research during the CWD period was not only
focused on efficient wind turbine and pump design, but also very
much on system technology. By means of passive matching of rotor
and load characteristics, system efficiency could be doubled or
tripled, without additional cost in active control systems. System
engineering and integrated design seem trivial basics for wind
turbine design, but is still poorly developed and not applied in the
industry to the highest standards possible.
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