Vertical-axis wind turbines are an attractive option for small-scale wind-power installations. In this application, noise is crucially important. To investigate the problem, measurements taken from a model-scale turbine in tunnel considered. The sound radiated by model clearly evident cross spectra pair of flush-mounted microphones. Parameter studies show that, normal operating range, speed dom...

Modern designs for straight-bladed vertical axis wind turbines (VAWTs)feature smaller individual footprints than conventional horizontal axis wind turbines (HAWTs), allowing closer spacing of turbines and potentially greater power extraction for the same wind farm footprint. However, the wakes of upstream turbines could persist far enough to affect the performance of closely-spaced downstream t...

One well-known obstacle facing most sources of renewable energy is the significantly decreased energy density with respect to fossil fuels. Energy density of wind power is further penalized by the need for wind turbines to be spaced far enough apart to not interfere with one another. Conventional horizontal axis wind turbines (HAWTs) must be spaced far apart [3–5 turbine diameters in the crossw...

Most wind farms consist of horizontal axis wind turbines (HAWTs) due to the high power coefficient (mechanical power output divided by the power of the free-stream air through the turbine cross-sectional area) of an isolated turbine. However when in close proximity to neighboring turbines, HAWTs suffer from a reduced power coefficient. In contrast, previous research on vertical axis wind turbin...

Wind-profiling lidars are now regularly used in boundary-layer meteorology and in applications such as wind energy and air quality. Lidar wind profilers exploit the Doppler shift of laser light backscattered from particulates carried by the wind to measure a line-of-sight (LOS) velocity. The Doppler beam swinging (DBS) technique, used by many commercial systems, considers measurements of this L...

It seems that one of the effects of global warming is to increase rainfall in some parts of the world while reducing it in others. With the growth in demand for water the effects of any reduction on political stability and human happiness are profound. Several regions in the Mediterranean are vulnerable. The amounts of energy involved in weather systems are so very large that it is difficult fo...

The Vertical Axis Wind Turbines (VAWTs) have an increasing global market and this emphasis the need for to improve performance of VAWTs, especially at relatively low wind speed. This paper utilises Response Surface methodology optimise a VAWT. A three bladed VAWT configuration was considered with NACA0015 profile. Three significant input parameters were selected including tip speed ratio, turbi...