Analysis of a Simplified Blade Design to Facilitate Wind Energy Penetration in the Developing World

Wind turbines can provide energy in developing countries. However, there are limitations to the skilled labor and manufacturing equipment required to manufacture these systems in these regions. Accordingly, the manufacturing process needs to be adapted to the potential of the developing world. In this work, a simplified wind turbine blade design is investigated. The turbine efficiency is analyzed by the blade element momentum (BEM) theory. Two different scenarios are considered to simplify the design of the wind turbine blade. The shape of the blade is simulated by a rectangular root connected to several trapezoidal segments. This results in a simple chord length distribution. The design of the twist angle is also considered. The area under the power curve is used to compare the performance of the simplified blades with that of the original design. Results show that the twist angle can be completely omitted as a tradeoff between efficiency and manufacturability. Depending on the number of simplified design segments, the area under the power curve is reduced between 13% and 25 % with respect to the original blade. The model also demonstrates how the loss in efficiency increases as the simplicity of blade design increases. Still, the design simplification enables a manufacturing process which may facilitate the use of wind energy in the developing world.