Articles | Volume 7, issue 5
https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-7-2003-2022
https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-7-2003-2022
Research article
 | 
12 Oct 2022
Research article |  | 12 Oct 2022

Current status and grand challenges for small wind turbine technology

Alessandro Bianchini, Galih Bangga, Ian Baring-Gould, Alessandro Croce, José Ignacio Cruz, Rick Damiani, Gareth Erfort, Carlos Simao Ferreira, David Infield, Christian Navid Nayeri, George Pechlivanoglou, Mark Runacres, Gerard Schepers, Brent Summerville, David Wood, and Alice Orrell

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Cited articles

Abbott, I. H. and Von Doenhoff, A. E.: Theory of wing sections: including a summary of airfoil data, Dover Publ., New York, USA, 691 pp., ISBN 0486605868, 2010. 
Aeolus4Future: Efficient Harvesting of the Wind Energy, Marie Skłodowska-Curie, grant agreement no. 643167, https://cordis.europa.eu/article/id/386860-a-breath-of-fresh-air-for-wind-energy, last access: 17 August 2022. 
Akwa, J. V., Vielmo, H. A., and Petry, A. P.: A review on the performance of Savonius wind turbines, Renew. Sustain. En. Rev., 16, 3054–3064, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2012.02.056, 2012. 
Allen, M.: Gauging public opinion on small wind turbines, https://www.youris.com/energy/renewables/gauging-public-opinion-on-small-wind-turbines.kl (last access: 17 August 2022), 2016. 
Arredondo-Galeana, A. and Brennan, F.: Floating Offshore Vertical Axis Wind Turbines: Opportunities, Challenges and Way Forward, Energies, 14, 8000, https://doi.org/10.3390/en14238000, 2021. 
Short summary
The paper is part of the Grand Challenges Papers for Wind Energy. It provides a status of small wind turbine technology in terms of technical maturity, diffusion, and cost. Then, five grand challenges that are thought to be key to fostering the development of the technology are proposed. To tackle these challenges, a series of unknowns and gaps are first identified and discussed. Improvement areas are highlighted, within which 10 key enabling actions are finally proposed to the wind community.
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