Hi guys, I have just joined the forum but have been watching Dave's videos for a couple of years.
Right, I am studying a bachelors degree in electrical power engineering and have a group project to design for a class called integrated engineering studies
So my group and I have decided on an inflatable wind turbine based on the Altaeros BAT but on a smaller scale.
http://www.altaerosenergies.com/We are planning on using this generator (167V)
http://www.energistar.com/wind.html for its lightweight design, low cut in speed and efficiency.
The plan with the turbine is to tether it to the ground in three places and send it up around 30m into smooth, laminar wind. The three phase from the generator will be rectified on the turbine and sent down 2.5mm squared copper cables as DC.
The turbine will be used to charge a 115Ah SLA leisure battery as well as run items directly from an inverter.
The main issue I'm facing at the moment is controlling the speed in high winds. We initially thought about dumping the load but this would cause overheating of the windings would it not?
As the turbine is essentially a floating ducted fan, we thought about pulling the back of the turbine body down at the rear tether point via a winch to decrease the wind flow through it but I don't really know how to control this!
I'm guessing that the voltage will keep rising the faster it spins and therefore a control circuit could be designed to winch the back end down when the voltage goes above a certain value?
Any help with this would be great! I'll try and get some pics up to explain what I mean as they will give a good idea of what I'm after!
Dave