A Prototype VA/HA Wind Turbine Design for Electric Power Generation by Moving Vehicles

Abstract

Renewable sources of electricity production are being explored in recent years owing to the gradual depletion and increasing cost of fossil fuel. Harnessing wind energy via the use of wind turbines is one of the fastest growing means of producing electricity from renewable energy sources. Though wind turbines are normally placed at coastal areas for maximum power production, other locations along railways and roadways are usually overlooked. This research considers the design and building of prototype Vertical Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT) and Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine (HAWT) to be placed along selected roadways in Ghana to harness the wind energy from moving vehicles to produce electricity. Test results indicated that average voltage levels of 1.59 V and 4.76 V could be obtained from average wind speeds of 4.19 m/s and 4.95 m/s considering prototype wind turbines designed and placed along the Tarkwa-Kumasi highway and the Winneba-Accra highway respectively. Considerable amounts of voltages produced by the prototype wind turbines calls for the creation of pilot projects on some selected busy highways to progressively improve and obtain well-developed highway wind turbines to reduce the load on the national grid; as harnessed wind energy could be used to power street lights and road traffic indicators for substantive periods of time. Pilot projects may determine appropriate heights of wind turbines for different highways and a means of safely combining power produced from such wind turbines. With great improvements in the prototype designs of the VAWT and HAWT, targeted power outputs of 58.11 W and 106.60 W could be respectively derived from the selected highways.