Small Wind Turbines as Partial Solution for Energy Sustainability of Malaysia

The global market for wind turbines has kept on emerging in the former decade. The large wind turbines have all advanced over the years to such a degree, to the point that the innovation is significantly developed. Whereas, the technology for small wind turbines has not fully-fledged like the large wind turbines due to the absence of such methodical research and development. Within a short span, a base development rate of 12% is foreseen to proceed due to advanced research, and the productiveness is predicted to reach around 1,9 GW by 2020. Since, a major portion of the globe is not having sufficient wind potential, the use of small wind turbines provides the exclusive opening of entering an untapped market without any environmental degradation. As Malaysia is promoting renewable energy sources for economic and environmentally friendly energy sustainability, this research aims at introducing small wind turbine technology because of its prevailing low wind speed. The future of the small wind turbines in Malaysia depends upon the capital cost per kW of the small wind turbine installation and the energy cost per kWh of the energy produced. Hence, keeping these two factors in mind, small scale wind turbines are designed using a blade element momentum theory based on the prevailing average wind speed in Malaysia