Best way to connect wind farm

System

Good morning folks,

I am building a small wind farm which consists of 8 vertical axis turbines. Each turbine has different voltage output for a specific wind force. Voltages, in general, will oscillate between
0 and max 30V from what I have seen so far, tending in the 10-20V region in normal wind conditions. I intend to plug the system into my house electrical system for my household appliances and normal usage. I am at deciding which inverter i need and I am faced with the choice of combining the voltages of the turbines.

There are a few 1kw 12V inverters out there. I could combine the turbines in parallel (most common setup from what i recon). Or I could combine them in serie to increase the voltage and use a 1kw 24V or 48V inverter instead. I don't know what the best solution is between the two. I know it would let me use thinner cable, but the entire system is in close proximity to the electrical connections, so I am not sure if such an argument is very strong in my case. I also have heard that in parallel, the final voltage is driven by the smallest voltage producer of the group. If this is correct, a smaller turbine producing 7V would limit a bigger one producing 20V in the same wind at the same time.

So. Series or parallel? Is there another hidden option?
Thanks a lot,
JFD

System2

Re: Best way to connect wind farm

hi

first it is not good to play with wind turbine in that way,why?
because w.turine doesn't have stable voltage,and you can make damage on your system !
until now I didn't heart someone to did this
be carefull !

russ

Re: Best way to connect wind farm

See the output before spending much.

Your selection of the VAWT - why?

Russ

BB.

Re: Best way to connect wind farm

Are you trying to do Grid Tied (wind turbine to inverter to utility power/house wiring) or Off Grid (wind turbine to battery bank to inverter not connected to utility power)?

I am not sure why you have a variety of wind turbines with different output voltages...

How large is each turbine? Normally, you would have one GT inverter per turbine. Or they would be all paralleled into one battery bank.

As Russ says--don't spend a lot of money on the turbines/electrical system until you are sure that they will perform well for you... Also watch for wear and tear over time. Many of the VAWT systems seem to need a lot of repair work after a year of exposure to the weather.

-Bill

skadude

Re: Best way to connect wind farm

A lot of assumptions need to be made based upon what you provided. You mentioned the desired output to be AC, and I assume 120V for US grid.

First of all, know that VAWT aren't as efficient as HAWT.
Second, don't wire in series.
Third, is your house off-grid? It would be best to wire an inverter to the output of each turbine. But, if off-grid, there'll be a mess of load-balancing issues.
Fourth, what type of generator is in the turbines? AC/DC? or AC rectified to DC? Induction, synchronous? Any DC/DC converters? Depending on the type of generator, the methods for connection are different.
Assuming permanent magnet synchronous generators with a rectified output, I would wire all in parallel, with a power diode in series with each turbine, to a battery bank. But, power would only be generated when the turbine spun fast enough to create a voltage larger than the battery bank. So, it would not produce power in low wind.

A lot of assumptions had to be made. Any more detail you can provide would help.