SBIR Phase I: Advanced Control and Estimation for Cooperative Vertical Axis Wind Turbines

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I research project seeks to develop advanced control technologies for improving the overall cost-effectiveness of small-scale vertical axis wind turbines. Most commercial wind turbines operate at energy efficiencies much lower than what can be practically realized. The efficiency can be vastly improved by implementing active control. In this project, simple blade actuation mechanisms, advanced control algorithms, nonlinear filtering methods will be integrated with effective generator, power converter and sensor technologies for reduction of overall cost per kilowatt. Furthermore, cooperative control methods will be developed for multiple vertical axis wind turbines installed on a building, by enabling inter-unit communication. It is expected that the proposed advanced technologies will render vertical axis wind turbines units economically viable for small-to-medium scale implementation on residential and commercial buildings.