Wind Energy Planning

Vertical axis wind turbines appear to be flavour of the year when it comes to small wind turbines. In the UK, supermarket giant Tesco has installed several “Ropatec” vertical axis wind turbines with a rated capacity of 6kW.

The latest vertical axis turbine model to come into the test arena is the new Blackhawk Tilt Rotor Wind Turbine. The turbine is being tested and monitored by researchers from the Blackhawk Project LLC at Idaho’s National Laboratory Center for Advanced Energy Studies (CAES).

Raymond Grosshans, program coordinator at CAES said “One of the reasons we chose Blackhawk is that it invites involvement from students and faculty and it supports economic development in Idaho.”

Blackhawk believes its turbine design distinguishes it from other wind energy systems. The clearest distinction being its blades or ‘airfoils’ that rotate parallel to the ground, unlike many commercial turbines. The airfoils are attached to a tilt rotor in the center of the turbine for which the company has a patent pending.

The TR-10 turbine is part of The Blackhawk Project’s prototype series and is expected to produce approximately 1.5 kilowatts of power which CAES say is “enough electricity to supplement a home, power a workshop or drive other small applications”.

The power generated from the system will feed directly into CAES buildings, however the main reason CAES agreed to test the turbine is to create opportunities for research collaborations between Idaho National Laboratory researchers, the Idaho research universities and the commercial sector.

Students and researchers at CAES will monitor the wind turbine’s performance and durability. Blackhawk hope the turbine will be more durable than traditional small turbines and say “the long arms of the wind turbine create such a high degree of torque that the unit is able to produce more power with fewer revolutions per minute (RPMs), which reduces wear and tear. When the turbine does need repairs or maintenance, locking magnets hold the rotor in place and prevent accidental spinning, creating a built-in safety feature.”

Blackhawk are really aiming at the mass market with this 3 metre diameter machine and say that the turbine fits in the back of a pickup and takes about three hours to install. They have high hopes for the TR-10 being successful in the small wind turbine industry and will be targeting farms, shops and homes in rural and semirural areas. Bruce Boatner, Blackhawk’s lead engineer said “We can be the market leader for bang-for-the-buck”

CAES are also seeking to maximise learning opportunities from the project by introducing a web cam stream video to high schools all over the country. This will give students across the country easy access to real-time data from CAES’ grid-type system.

“Students, faculty and researchers can use it for instrumentation, developing modeling tools and to support ongoing classroom activities,” said Grosshans.