Performance enhancement of small horizontal axis wind turbine blades

Abstract

The conventional resources used for the generation of power such as coal oil and nuclear are finite and will not last long Many environmental political and economic issues are concerned with conventional generation In spite of all the odds the requirement of energy grows steadily and new reliable energies sources are emerging that is not harmful to the environment and is sustainable The renewable energies such as solar and wind are clean green and inexhaustible which can support to the growing demand significantly Solar insolation on the earth s surface is estimated at 165 x 1018 W but available in most dispersed form The wind which is also one form of solar energy is available in the most concentrated form and a primitive energy harnessed by man effectively from early days The total installed wind energy capacity till 2015 was 392 927 GW according to World Wind Energy Association WWEA The generation of power from renewable energy sources was initiated in India during the seventh plan 1992 and the installed capacity at the end of seventh plan was 32MW The nation s generation capacity by wind power grew up to 26 769 newlineMW in 2015 which was about 8 6% of the total installed capacity of the country The estimated wind power in India of producing potential power is about 49 130 MW at 50 m height and 102 788 MW at 80 m height from the ground level The present installed wind power as on 2015is only about 17.6% of the potential wind power available. India ranks fourth after China United States and German in the cumulative installed capacity of wind power generation The density of wind turbines may be increased across the country to tap the entire potential wind power but the annual average wind speed prevailing across the country varies from 21m/s to less than 1 m s Wind power generation form high windy areas are highly successful newline newline