ABSTRACT
Figure 26.1 The Turbine. There is much more in the wind than the ability to rotate things hanging above the ground. Poets, the conscience of mankind, identify the wind with freedom and adore it-impeccable credentials.The real names of people and companies associated with Turbine are not disclosed here. Though apologies are in order, seeking the permit would turn up irrational: in the time of writing the publication was not certain, the time for writing was limited, and accommodating individual wishes would be damaging for the integrity of the story. Besides, though technical stuff is discussed here, worlds apart from the detective genre, some mystery adds to the intrigue. The people and story are real; the names are “secret de Polichinelle”—just google it. 26.2 The CompanySome words about the company, thereafter Company, which developed Turbine are due at the beginning. In this story it will play a humble role of background-that doesn’t do its justice. A university professor who taught aerodynamic founded it. It hatched from student projects. It carried some academic flavour. Introducing Turbine, Company made some mistakes, but never
Company went through change of generations in leadership; the process was additionally complicated by archetypical Father and Son conflict. Several people at the top of the company didn’t have children, they called themselves “dead genes club”—hardly a lot of extra dedication to work came from that fact, but some might. The work on Turbine was combined with other projects-not a trivial task for a small company. In nutshell, the design environ-ment was not particularly favourable, but it was certainly good enough for success. During the debate about healthcare reform, the Vice President of Company, by that time retired, sent a mass email, apologising to the recipients for that single case of violation of his own rule against such actions. He told his friends, acquaintances, and former co-workers about his dismay of the way the debate was developing. He raised his voice against deceitful methods that became SOP for politicians, lobbyists, and predatory business interests. He took to heart “quality of our lives and the nature of this thing we call America…” Geographically the root system of the design team was widespread: Armenia, Belarus, Germany, Latvia, and Oklahoma. 26.3 Engineers and DesignersLeading Engineer was an Oklahoma native with Native American ancestry. He graduated from Oklahoma University with such impressive grades that he was accepted to a General Motors design team right from the university bench. He lived in Detroit for several years designing air conditioning systems for passenger cars and testing them. He was on hostile terms with the grey sky of Michigan and some GM policies-that brought him to Company. He coordinated all the work and did most of Turbine mechanical design. His hobby was audio amplifiers; that allowed him to contribute a lot to the Turbine electronic controller. His work was indispen-sable in discovering some weaknesses of Turbine and improving it after the initial introduction to market. Alternator Designer was born in Armenia to a musical family. To become a self-made man he took engineering at local university,
border conflict. He moved to Germany following his parents. There he obtained a Master Degree in Electrical Machines. He was contracted for a project and left Company before Turbine manu-facturing started. In Germany he was accepted by Bosch and successfully continued his career in electrical machine design. Electronic Designer obtained his degrees from universities in Latvia and Belarus. After gigantic Soviet industry collapsed, he worked on grid-tie inverters for small wind turbines. He got involved in a power electronics project in the Folkecenter for Renewable Energy, Denmark. He struggled to finish it, as his soldering skills lagged behind in comparison with the theoretical knowledge. However the difficulties, the spirit of green comradeship cultivated there as well as vision for the future, great personalities in the leadership, and natural beauty of the place impressed him immensely. After moving to the United States he accepted a job offer by Company and felt like his dreams came true. The newly elected Company president was looking for fresh ideas. Turbine seemed to be the right one: it had to replace an old bird that had been in production for a decade. New materials and devices, rear earth permanent magnets, inexpensive fibreglass, semiconductors (MOSFETs), and digital signal processors, were bagging for implementation. Peak power tracking and high efficiency DC-to-DC converters promised numerous advantages. Once there was a quiet period between stages of other project he set the team to work on Turbine. Relying on a heavy Russian reference book and advanced German software, Alternator Designer worked fast on the permanent magnet alternator, while listening on his computer to the music composed by his genius Grandpa. Important technical decisions were validated during sometimes-heated discussions between Alternator Designer, Leading Engineer, and Electronic Designer. 26.4 The TurbineThe Company had vast experience with the battery charging application. So it was decided to start with it. It was meant to go for grid-tie, battery-less version in the next stage. At the time of the story efficient MOSFET transistors and Schottky diodes were
The alternator produces a three-phase voltage of variable frequency and amplitude. In most cases it is rectified and, depending on application, converted to a different level of DC (battery charging) or to a constant voltage and constant frequency AC (grid-tie or off-grid AC application). Most small wind turbine manufacturers use a set of three brushes and three slip rings to pass the power over from the alternator on the top of tower to the ground equipment. For Turbine it was decided to install a rectifier on the tower and use a set of two brushes and two slip rings for power transfer.
