DTU Wind Energy took two first places and one second place in the competition in The Netherlands.
Researchers from DTU Wind Energy participated in the annual International Small Wind Turbine Contest in Delft in the Netherlands last week.
Altogether, eight teams from five different countries participated in the competition with 10 wind turbines.
During the competition, the wind turbines are being tested in an OpenJet wind tunnel.
The group from DTU Wind Energy participated in two different projects: one being a wind turbine with an upright axle (VAWT) design – the other was a wind turbine with a horizontal axle (HAWT) design.
Took first place
The two researchers at DTU Wind Energy, Mac Gaunaa and Robert Mikkelsen was in charge of the group from DTU Wind Energy. In the end, DTU took first place in both VAWT and HAWT. Robert Mikkelsen explains:
“Both wind turbines ran accordingly to plan, and we set a new record by reaching the highest power coefficient on 0.396 and a maximum effect on 1.05 kilowatt with the HAWT turbine. With the VAWT turbine, we reached a power coefficient on 0.186.”
The turbines have been built in close collaboration with DTU Electro.
At the contest, there was a third award as well – the award for the highest AEP (annual energy production). Ain Shams University from Egypt took first place right in front of DTU Wind Energy with only 2% AEP. Thus, DTU Wind Energy came in second.
The teams at the Small Wind Turbine Contest came from Egypt, Canada, The Netherlands, Poland and Denmark.