Development of wind turbine controller for low wind speeds

In this research, controller for wind turbine capable of generating electricity even at low wind speeds is developed. The employed small vertical axis wind turbine has the capability of generating power at low wind speeds. However, the charging battery under low wind speeds is difficult because the terminal voltage of the generator cannot be kept high enough. To solve this problem, charge operation under low wind speeds is realized by boosting the terminal voltage of generator with a boost chopper circuit. In this paper, a developed control system enables simple maximum power point tracking control by feedback of DC voltage and current information. Furthermore, since the control circuit has a simple structure and is inexpensive, it is suitable for practical use.