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lab:zephyr [2012/04/04 21:46] – [Prototyping] chronolab:zephyr [2013/06/05 14:34] (current) – external edit 127.0.0.1
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 +====== Zephyr ======
  
 +Megawatt scale HAWT grid-tie windparks are operating at optimum height in specific areas, with strong and mostly continuous winds. This makes their development, construction and maintenance very labor- and resource-intensive projects and causes much inflexibility in the process of finding a suitable  location for deployment and operation.
 +
 +
 +{{:lab:hawt_windpark_by_lars_schmidt.jpg?nolink&645}}
 +
 +
 +Zephyr, named after the greek god of the West-Wind, is the concept of a small-scale and modular DIY Wind-Harvesting-System, designated to work in low-wind areas, keeping sustainability, efficiency, resilience and safety in mind. 
 +
 +**Benefits of many small turbines instead of a few big ones:**
 +
 +  * Redundancy: Failure of a big turbine has more impact than a single small turbine of a group
 +  * Scalability: Park can grow with more available resources and higher consumption demands
 +  * Reality: It's easier to build small turbines without specialized machines or cranes to put them up
 +
 +===== Wind-Park Construction Kit =====
 +
 +This shall become a draft of common agreements on design principles and common interfaces to keep modularity and development diversity on a high level.
 +
 +
 +==== Mechanics ====
 +
 +[[lab:zephyr:mechanics]]
 +
 +
 +==== Rotor Types ====
 +
 +All VAWT's seem to have a bad reputation when it comes to conversion efficiency. The most commonly known VAWT's are the Darrieus and Savonius types. However, there are alternative ideas for the vertical axis, like [[http://www.fundamentalform.com/html/involute_wind_turbine.html|Larry Dobson's involute wind turbine]] or the [[http://www.daswindrad.de/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=21|C-Rotor]] concept, which has the advantage of being tested and developed by a strong community.
 +
 +[[lab:zephyr:rotors]]
 +
 +==== Generators ====
 +
 +[[lab:zephyr:generators]]
 +
 +
 +==== Smart-Grid ====
 +
 +[[lab:zephyr:smartgrid]]
 +
 +
 +==== Electronics ====
 +
 +[[lab:zephyr:electronics]]
 +
 +
 +===== Prototyping =====
 +
 +We want to make small-scale wind technology available to everyone, so that more people can experiment with this technology. TiVA, the Tiny Vertical Axis project is aiming to give people a very modular but complete small-scale VAWT 
 +to try out new technologies.
 +
 +[[lab:zephyr:tiva]]
 +
 +{{tag>zephyr wind energy research}}