Performance of a Multiple Small Wind Turbine-Solar Panel Hybrid System

One of the major limitations of wind power is the inconsistency of wind turbine generator (WTG) output. However, there is a possibility that a multiple wind turbine system could reduce fluctuations in a total output by canceling out each other's variations. Theoretically, the deviation of the multiple wind turbines'fluctuations is reduced at a rate inversely proportional to the square root of the number of turbines. The authors have constructed a hybrid multiple WTG system, which consists of three 1kW wind turbine generators and four 21.6W polycrystal solar panels. The generators are directly connected to the common 24V d.c. electric line system. Measurements of the performance of each generator, such as rotational speed of the turbines, fluctuating electric currents and line voltage, and the fluctuations of each generator's output are analyzed. Our results show that the hybrid multiple WTG system successfully reduces wind turbine output fluctuations.