Wind turbines classification

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There exists a wide range of wind turbine technologies. A small wind turbine is a wind turbine used for microgeneration, as opposed to large commercial wind turbines, such as those found in modern wind parks, with greater individual power output.

The International Electrotechnical Commission has published an international standard 61400-2:2014 [1] which defines the line between the small and the large wind turbines.

  • Small-scale wind turbines produces energy up to 50 kW rated power or less, and they are suitable for homes, farms, small businesses, rural villages, telecommunication systems, etc.
  • Large-scale wind turbines have rated energy outputs of greater than 250 kW.


For a given survivable wind speed, the mass of a turbine is approximately proportional to the cube of its blade-length. Wind power intercepted by the turbine is proportional to the square of its blade-length times power output from the rotor. Wind turbines are also classified by the aerodynamic force (lift and drag) and the orientation of the axis of rotation to the direction of the wind: Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine (HAWT) and Vertical Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT). The majority of presently installed wind turbines are HAWT and only 3% are VAWT. [2]


The overall classification of wind turbines as illustrated [3] (missing atm)


Same as with the icing on large-scale wind turbines, the small-scale wind turbines are prone to more severe ice accretion under high wind velocity and low temperature. Due to the lack of feedback loop installed, the small-scale wind turbines can be stopped more easily when they suffer from ice loads compared to the large-scale wind turbines. Thus, compared to the deterioration of aerodynamic performances, ice will accrete more on the rotor of small-scale wind turbines compared to the largescale wind turbines. [4]

[5]

References

  1. International Electrotechnique Internationale (IEC), Wind turbine – Part 2: Small wind turbines, IEC 61400-2:2013, European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (CENELEC), 2014
  2. A. C. Hansen and C. P. Butterfield, Aerodynamics of horizontal-axis wind turbines, Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics vol. 25, pp. 115 – 149, 1993.
  3. K. Giridhar, S. J. Venkata Aravind, and Sana Vani, Aerodynamic Modelling and Analysis of Wind Turbine, Soft Computing Techniques and Applications, pp. 139 – 145, Singapore, 2020
  4. Lichun Shu, Liang Jian, Qin Hu, Xingliang Jiang, Xiaokai Ren, and Gang Qiu, Study on small wind turbine icing and its performance, Cold Regions Science and Technology, vol. 134, pp. 11 – 19, 2016.
  5. Jia Yi Jin. Study of Atmospheric Ice Accretion on Wind Turbine Blades. 2021. Thesis for the degree of Philosophiae Doctor. UiT ̶ The Arctic University of Norway Faculty of Engineering Science and Technology.