Optimization of H-type Darrieus VAWTs: A preliminary review

Abstract

Presently, urban wind energy generation has received increasing attention and among various type of wind turbines, vertical axis wind turbines(VAWTs) are the most optimal wind energy harvester for urban and domestic applications. This is attributed by their numerous advantages, the primary being able to operate with any wind direction (omni-directional). Moreover, these turbines have low manufacturing, installation and maintenance costs. However, several critical issues regarding their power efficiency have limited their wide applications. This paper is intended to provide a preliminary review of optimization methods in the literature with the aim of improving the performance of small-scale Darrieus VAWTs.