Review on Vertical Axis Wind Turbine

Focus on the use of renewable sources of energy for generation of electrical power is gaining momentum. This is partly due to the emergence of Global warming as well as latest technological advancements in fields related to material science, nanotechnology, Finite Element Analysis and Computational Fluid Dynamics software, etc. Wind energy has high potential to be exploited for power generation along with solar energy. India has current installed capacity of 32.17 GW which is the fourth largest installed capacity in the world. Also, National Institute of Wind Energy has projected India’s wind power potential from 49,130 MW to 302,000 MW. For now, most of the wind farms are located at remote places since they require large footprint of installation, produce noise pollution and cannot operate with high structures around them which obstruct wind flow. Hence, these factors make them absolute in an urban setup. We explore the applicability of Vertical Axis Wind Turbine in these urban areas. VAWT have inherent advantages over HAWT like less space requirement, operation in any direction of wind flow, easy construction and installation. Solar energy utilization is prominent in households. However, the biggest disadvantage of current Solar Energy Generation Systems is their inability to provide energy during night time. Wind energy is at its peak during night time due to temperature difference between sea temperature and land temperature. VAWT can be used in tandem with these SEGS to provide electricity during day as well as night time. In this paper, we have reviewed the history of VAWT, their major types and advantages over Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine