Sizing and topology of a small-scale sustainable wind energy capture and storage system

This paper presents a design approach for a sustainable wind energy capture and storage system (WECSS) for low power application. Sustainability is only achieved when the entire system, i.e. energy source, materials used and the manufacturing process, is done in a sustainable manner. By regarding sustainability as the most important factor, the design approach of the individual components of the WECSS is presented next. The generator is directly coupled to a wind turbine, its output rectified and boosted to a desired DC voltage level, which supplies a DC-load directly. A bidirectional DC-DC converter links the DC-bus with a brushless DC (BLDC) motor, which finally turns a flywheel. A methodology for the sizing and design procedure of the individual components is presented next. The design approach incorporates a detailed discussion of three operation points of the WECSS, i.e. maximum wind speed, cut-in wind speed and absolute minimum wind speed at which the load demand is met. Furthermore, a typical load profile of a rural or impoverished urban household is developed and by linking it with the calculated operation points, the operation limits of the sustainable system are calculated.