Design and Implementation of a Wind Turbine System for Charging Solutions

This project focuses on designing and implementing a wind turbine system for small-scale charging applications, addressing the need for efficient, renewable energy solutions in off-grid locations. The system utilizes a repurposed ceiling fan motor with permanent magnets as the generator and an ESP8266 microcontroller for real-time monitoring via the ThingSpeak platform. Key components include a rectification unit, DC-DC converter, energy management system, inverter, and load unit. Testing showed that while the system generated power, performance was limited by the stator's stiffness and the generator's weak magnetic field, requiring high wind speeds for significant output. MATLAB analysis revealed that only 43% of available wind energy was converted into mechanical energy due to a power coefficient (Cp= 0.43). Despite these challenges, the system successfully powered small devices like smartphones and rechargeable lamps, demonstrating its practical potential. The project highlights the promise of VAWT technology for localized renewable energy solutions. It provides recommendations for future improvements, including enhancing the generator’s magnetic field, widening the stator ring to improve rotor movement, and upgrading to a higher-wattage AC motor for better efficiency. This research contributes to developing small-scale wind energy systems and offers insights for further optimization to improve the scalability and efficiency of VAWT-based renewable energy solutions.