News & Articles on Small & Household Size Wind Turbines

Small wind turbines encompass a broad range of wind turbines from micro turbines, to mini turbines, to household-size turbines. Wind turbines in these size classes may have power ratings from a few watts to dozens of kW. Internationally, this category includes wind turbines up to 15 meters (49 feet) in diameter. Wind turbines of this size may have power ratings from 50 to 100 kW.

While ducted or shrouded wind turbines and Vertical Axis Wind Turbines can be of any size, they are listed here because they are outside the mainstream of the commercial wind industry.

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Kragten Design Wind Turbines Now Open Source

By

Paul Gipe

Adriaan Kragten contacted me that he’s retiring from his wind turbine design work and has made his designs publicly available. …

Utrc Pendulum Composite Bearingless Rotor

Failed Dream: the Bearingless Wind Turbine Rotor of the Late 1970s

By

Paul Gipe

On paper the composite bearingless rotor seemed too good to be true: a wind turbine rotor that enabled the blades to change pitch without bearings in the hub. And the wind turbine would passively use aerodynamic forces to orient the rotor downwind of the tower. It was the height of simplicity and would be cheap to build. What could go wrong? The short answer: everything. Eventually the nearly 400 wind turbines using the concept in California during the Great California Wind Rush of the early to mid 1980s were scraped off the face of the earth for scrap. And therein lays a sprawling tale.

Windtech Wind Ridge Tehachapi 1984 15 72x1200x800

UTRC, Windtech, Dynergy, & Composite Bearingless Rotor Timeline

By

Paul Gipe

For details on development of the Composite Bearingless Rotor and its derivatives see my accompanying article Failed Dream: the Bearingless …

Northern Power Systeems' Nps 100 At The Girvan Community Hospital, Scotland.

Saying Goodbye to a Cold-Weather Workhorse: Northwind 100

By

External Source

After arriving at NREL in February 2001, the Northern Power Systems’ NorthWind 100 wind turbine was used for a variety of wind energy research projects such as early hybrid wind/diesel systems for deployment in Alaska. In cooperation with NASA and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Northern Power Systems developed the NorthWind 100 to demonstrate extreme cold-weather operation in Vermont, Colorado, Alaska, the South Pole, and eventually a futuristic application on Mars.

Folkecenter Ydby Denmark 1998 09

Upcoming Small Wind Conference at the Folkecenter

By

Paul Gipe

Later this week is the Folkecenter’s 8th Small Wind Conference, following quickly on the heels of the great Husum Wind …

Clarkson University Visser Turbine

Small Ducted Turbines on the March in New York

By

Paul Gipe

On 14 June the Adirondack Explorer reported that two small ducted wind turbines have been installed in the Adirondack Mountains …

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