A novel technique to enhance wind power generation in moderate wind speed

The use of rotor tip-fans for enhancing both power conversion as well as low wind speed operation of wind turbines is investigated. It is proposed that tip-fans operating in the tangential directions create a tangential force that enhances the lift force due to wind. Experiments are carried out in a wind tunnel to investigate the effect of tip-fans on the turbine performance. Furthermore, initial results of wind tunnel testing showed that more net power is extracted from the wind when tipfans are ON than when tip-fans are OFF. It is concluded that the wind turbine performance is greatly affected by tip-fans which enhance the rotor speed at low wind speed. The present experimental results suggest that the performance of the proposed system is considerably greater than that of a bare wind turbine.