Performance enhancement of permanent magnet generators for low speed wind energy harvesting systems

Abstract

The rise in environmental pollution and global temperature had urged the developed countries to look for an alternative way of life which is less polluting and more sustainable. Most of the densely populated developing and third world countries still rely on the fossil fuel-based power generation to satisfy the energy demand. For such cases the higher penetration of electricity-based customer applications in the grid makes the situation worse instead of reducing the emission. Hence, it should be ensured that the dependency on fossil fuels-based power production is minimized through the renewable energy-based power generation system. newlineAccordingly, sources like solar, wind, tidal, biomass etc., are being utilized for the power generation. But Solar and Wind energy conversion technologies are comprehensively matured when compared to other sources of renewable energies. The solar energy appears to be rapidly developing in recent years, but still comes out with a few drawbacks like higher space requirement, higher investment, low power density and availability. These drawbacks are continuously fueling the growth of wind energy conversion technology. The seasonal changing nature and low velocity of wind energy can be extracted effectively through low-speed wind generators and thus make it suitable for domestic applications. This low-speed wind energy conversion technology utilizes the availability of wind energy throughout the year and it paving the way in penetrating the small-scale wind energy conversion system in domestic applications. newline