Wind power

Due to increasing global electricity consumption, climate change threats and decreasing oil resources, the interest for alternative energy sources such as wind energy is increased. The wind is both free of charge and renewable, it has no polluting discharges and is therefore a good complement to regulated energy sources such as hydropower.

At Uppsala University, we mainly study vertical axis wind turbines, where the blades are rotating around a vertical axis as opposed to a horisontal, as in conventional wind power plants. One of the advantages with a vertical axis is that the generator can be situated on the ground, which gives a better performance and cheaper construction costs.

To develop effective wind power plants, the aerodynamics must be modelled with good accuracy. This is a complex problem which is usually studied with different numerical methods.

A 2 kW vertical axis wind turbine of Uppsala University was constructed in 2005. In 2006, a 12 kW turbine was developed and built at Marsta outside Uppsala.