Vertical axis and horizontal axis wind turbine- A comprehensive review

Abstract

Renewable are seen as next generation sources of energy for meeting rising energy demands and depleting fossil fuels. Solar, biomass, geothermal, hydro-electric and wind are the renewables which can produce huge megawatts of power. Among all this, wind is the cheapest renewable source of energy. This fast growing wind energy source needs to be utilised. On the basis of structure, wind turbines are broadly classified as Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine (HAWT) and Vertical Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT). VAWT can tap wind energy from any direction, while HAWT can tap wind from only one direction. But still HAWT are being researched upon and used more as it taps more wind energy as compared to VAWT. Traditional HAWT have unreasonable efficiencies so focus has slightly shifted to VAWT. Economically HAWT are better than VAWT but VAWT are more portable in nature. This paper deals with the different classification of turbines, relative comparison between them and development of mathematical modelling of wind turbines.