Design and modeling of working wind turbine

Abstract

Nowadays, electricity energy consumption has arisen around the world. In Malaysia especially the average electricity tariffs have increased by 7.12. Malaysia has a potential to use the wind as alternative energy in generating electricity because of sometimes the wind speed in Malaysia can reached until 12 m/s. East coast areas such as Kuala T erengganu and Kota Bahru have a potential generate electricity from wind where the annually wind speed 3.1 m/s respectively. Therefore, with the advantage of the high wind speed at east coast Malaysia the used of electricity from wind can became an alternative to overcome the increasing of tariff. The objective of this project is to design and build a suitable working wind turbine which can save and reduce the electricity consumption. A Savonius type rotor has been selected as the basic design. The advantages of the Savonius rotor are it was simple construction, acceptance of wind from any direction without orientation and lack of necessity for over speed control. Savonius type rotor also produces higher torque and has lower cut in speed. A small Savonius type prototype 1 meter tall with a 0.46 meter rotor diameter is designed and built. The materials used to build the rotor choose from the lightweight material to increase the torque of the prototype-and make the prototype sensitive with low wind speed condition. Finally the prototype then was tested at selected location. The results show prototype has achieved the objective by save RM 0.12 per month or if ratio using 1000 watt motor the prototype can save RM 192.97 per month.