Residential Wind by Way of Illustration - Wind Power for the World: The Rise of Modern Wind Energy - page 576

border conflict. He moved to Germany following his parents. There
he obtained a Master Degree in Electrical Machines. He was
contracted for a project and left Company before Turbine manu-
facturing started. In Germany he was accepted by Bosch and
successfully continued his career in electrical machine design.
Electronic Designer obtained his degrees from universities
in Latvia and Belarus. After gigantic Soviet industry collapsed, he
worked on grid-tie inverters for small wind turbines. He got involved
in a power electronics project in the Folkecenter for Renewable
Energy, Denmark. He struggled to finish it, as his soldering skills
lagged behind in comparison with the theoretical knowledge.
However the difficulties, the spirit of green comradeship cultivated
there as well as vision for the future, great personalities in
the leadership, and natural beauty of the place impressed him
immensely. After moving to the United States he accepted a job
ofer by Company and felt like his dreams came true.
The newly elected Company president was looking for fresh
ideas. Turbine seemed to be the right one: it had to replace an old
bird that had been in production for a decade. New materials and
devices, rear earth permanent magnets, inexpensive fibreglass,
semiconductors (MOSFETs), and digital signal processors, were
bagging for implementation. Peak power tracking and high efficiency
DC-to-DC converters promised numerous advantages. Once there
was a quiet period between stages of other project he set the team
to work on Turbine.
Relying on a heavy Russian reference topic and advanced
German software, Alternator Designer worked fast on the permanent
magnet alternator, while listening on his computer to the music
composed by his genius Grandpa. Important technical decisions
were validated during sometimes-heated discussions between
Alternator Designer, Leading Engineer, and Electronic Designer.

26.4 The Turbine

The Company had vast experience with the battery charging
application. So it was decided to start with it. It was meant to go
for grid-tie, battery-less version in the next stage. At the time of
the story efficient MOSFET transistors and Schottky diodes were
available only for comparatively low voltage. So the turbine was
designed for 24VDC.