Micro Wind Turbine

Overview

The micro wind turbine is a 1.5 kW horizontal-axis machine for off-grid and remote power, where it charges a battery bank from the wind. A three-bladed rotor drives a direct-drive permanent-magnet alternator in a yawing nacelle; a tail vane keeps the rotor facing the wind, and a charge controller manages battery charging and over-speed protection without any gearbox.

The Rotor uses three fixed-pitch carbon-reinforced fiberglass blades on an aluminium hub behind a nose cone. The 3.2 m rotor begins generating at a 3 m/s cut-in wind and reaches rated output near 12 m/s.

How it works

The rotor turns the Permanent-Magnet Alternator, a direct-drive permanent-magnet generator whose twelve neodymium rotor poles sweep past three-phase stator windings to produce AC at a frequency proportional to wind-driven rpm. Direct drive eliminates a gearbox, the most failure-prone part of small turbines.

The whole head sits on the Nacelle mainframe casting, which carries the alternator and the Tail Assembly. The tail boom and vane passively yaw the machine into the wind, and a slip ring passes power across the rotating yaw axis so the cable never twists, supported by a yaw bearing in the tower mount.

Wild-frequency three-phase output runs down to the Charge Controller, which rectifies it to DC and runs maximum-power-point tracking to load the rotor optimally. When the battery is full or wind is excessive, surplus energy is shunted to a dump-load resistor, which also brakes the rotor. For shutdown and survival in storms, the Brake Assembly shorts the alternator phases electromagnetically and applies a mechanical disc stop. Energy is stored in the Battery Interface, a 48 V lithium pack with an integrated BMS.