CWC Deployment Team

Project Description

NAU's Collegiate Wind Competition Deployment Team has been tasked with designing a small-scale wind turbine that appeals to a current industry market. After compiling cross-disciplinary research, the team decided to focus their design towards the telecommunication market in India. Unlike in the United States, most of the telecommunication towers (cell phone towers) in India are not connected to the electrical grid. As such, all of these remote towers have to be powered by individual power sources, such as a diesel generator. The Deployment Team is designing a wind turbine that can be used to power these remote sites regularly as a part of a hybrid system. This system will utilize the turbine as the main source of power while using a battery bank and/or the exsisting diesel generator as backup power sources.

System Benefits

  1. Reduction of the fuel costs involved in running the telecom site
  2. Reduction of transport costs involved in regularly shipping fuel to remote sites
  3. Utilizes current site infrastructure for installation of the wind turbine
  4. Increases reliability of some remote telecomm sites that may be difficult to access

Blade Design

The blades used on this turbine were designed using the Blade Element Momentum theory and are linked via a scale factor to the tunnel team's blade design

  • Aerodynamic power output of 4.2 kW at 11 m/s
  • 4 meter rotor diameter
  • Cut-in speed: TBD based on generator selection
  • Max wind speed: 50 m/s
  • Turbine Generator

    Check back soon for information on the exact generator to be selected

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    Expected Output

    Check back soon for expected power production of the system. For aerodynamic output, see the blade design

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    Telecom Site Evaluation

    Each telecomm site will be examined individually for their wind resource. Check back soon for information on towers and other infrastructure compatible with our turbine design.

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    Safety First

    Check back soon to see the safety devices inplemented in our turbine design to ensure continuous and safe operation

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