Market

Community and small wind turbines are wind powered systems that provide an alternate source of electrical power for residential and commercial users such as small businesses, industrial plants, warehouses, farms, and municipal buildings. Systems that utilize MagDrive’s technologies will realize a major advantage in terms of performance and payback.

Problem

Today, community and small wind systems have an efficiency of around 20%, and therefore a long time before a return on investment is realized. The main reasons include:

• Electric generator and power/control electronics of existing 100KW and under wind turbines are designed for one particular wind speed; hence, they produce electric energy at full capacity only at a particular wind speed which accounts for the low efficiency at speeds below the generator rated speed, i.e. at low-wind conditions.
• Existing wind turbines have a cut-in wind speed above which they begin to operate; hence, even though the blades are rotating, it does not mean that electricity is being generated.
• Existing wind turbines have several moving parts and mechanical furling systems to limit the operating speed at high wind speeds in order to protect the electric generator and power/control electronics; hence, existing wind turbines do not produce at full capacity at large wind speeds.

These factors are addressed by MagDrive’s technologies – resulting in significant improvements in the level of energy harvested by MagDrive systems compared to existing systems.