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1. Wind generators – the advantages and disadvantages of
different generator topologies
Wind is the movement of air caused by air masses at different temperatures. The
difference in temperature is caused by the water and earth masses that absorb differently
the heat of the sun. On a global scale, the massive movements of air are caused by the
temperature differences between the air at the equator and that near the two poles. The
wind is thus a renewable source of energy that is used in order to produce electricity.
Wind turbines generate electricity without air pollution and the wind energy comes from a
source that never exhausts. Wind energy currently provides over 4% of the electricity in
Europe. The CO2 emission level is fifty times lower than that of ‘gray’ energy and the wind
turbines produce up to eighty times as much energy as it takes to build one. Furthermore,
the overall advantages of the wind generators are the fact that they are highly sustainable,
there are no by-products, and wind energy is free and never runs out.
Disadvantages are the uncontrollability of the wind resulting in additional features being
required to regulate the wind speed, in case it is very high or very low, and the placement
and the considerable distance that must be kept between turbines are exigent. Sometimes
people and animals living next wind farms may be affected by them. But all of these
aspects may be counteracted.
Modern wind turbines function based on the same principle as windmills did thousands of
years ago: the blades, by means of a generator, transform the kinetic energy of the wind
into electricity. An important component of a wind turbine is thus the generator, being the
device that converts mechanical energy into electrical energy.
The generator transforms the movement of the blades into electricity and supplies the generated electricity to
the grid or to an accumulator which stores the energy for later use. The functioning of a generator is compared
with that of a dynamo on a bicycle: “a stationary structure, called the stator provides a
constant magnetic field, and a set of rotating windings called the armature, which turns
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2. within that field. The motion of the wire within the magnetic field causes the field to push
on the electrons in the metal, creating an electric current in the wire.” 1
WIND GENERATOR SYSTEMS
Wind generators may be classified according to their rotations: they can be either at fixed-
speed or at variable-speed. The main difference between the two types of speed is the fact
that the fixed-speed turbine attains a maximum efficiency at one wind speed, while the
variable-speed may be operated so that it permanently remains at the highest level
efficiency.
(Michael Schmidt, Wind Turbine Design Optimization, Georgia, [online].
Available at http://www.clemson.edu/scies/wind/Poster-Schmidt.pdf)
Two types of generators are used in wind energy: synchronous and asynchronous or
induction generators.
Read more about synchronous and asynchronous or induction generators here:
http://bit.ly/ee-systems-wind-articles
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamo
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IQPC GmbH | Friedrichstr. 94 | D-10117 Berlin, Germany
t: +49 (0) 30 2091 3330 | f: +49 (0) 30 2091 3263 | e: eq@iqpc.de | w: www.iqpc.de
Visit IQPC for a portfolio of topic-related events, congresses, seminars and conferences: www.iqpc.de