What are Advantages and Disadvantages of Vertical Axis Wind Turbine

Today our post is about advantages and disadvantages of vertical axis wind turbine. Vertical axis wind turbine are one whose axis of rotation is vertical with respect to ground. 

From the several Vertical axis wind turbine advantages and disadvantages we have discus few of them that are common in all types of vertical axis wind turbine.

what are some advantages of a vertical axis wind turbine

Following are some of the advantages of vertical axis wind turbine
  • They can produce electricity in any wind direction
  • Strong supporting tower in not needed because generator, gearbox and other components are placed on the ground
  • Low production cost as compared to horizontal axis wind turbine
  • As there is no need of pointing turbine in wind direction to be efficient so yaw drive and pitch mechanism is not needed
  • Easy installation as compared to other wind turbine
  • Easy to transport from one place to other
  • Low maintenance cost
  • They can be install in urban area
  • Low risk for human and birds because blades moves at relatively low speed
  • They are particularly suitable for areas with extreme weather conditions, like in the mountains where they can supply electricity to mountain huts.

what are some disadvantages of a vertical axis wind turbine

Following are some of the disadvantages of vertical axis wind turbine 
  • As only one blade of wind turbine work at a time so efficiency is very low
  • They need a initial push to start, this action use few of its own produce electricity
  • When compared to horizontal axis wind turbine they are very less efficient with respect to  them. this is because they have an additional drag when their blades rotates.
  • They have relative high vibration because the air flow near the ground creates turbulent flow
  • Because of vibration bearing wear increase which result in the increase of maintenance cost
  • They create noise pollution
  • Guy wires which hold up the machine, need some area to install 

Conclusion on vertical axis wind turbine pros and cons

Vertical axis wind turbine are considered to be better than horizontal axis wind turbine as they can take wind from any direction. Other than this there are several pros and cons of vertical axis wind turbine discussed in this article. It better  to student them thoroughly and have complete understanding of them before making any decision.

    12 comments:

    1. They are only less efficient with some (poorly designed) blade designs. There are many models that do not have much drag going into the wind, and in some cases some have wings that get more power going into the wind.

      This article seems to only talk about one particular style, that is over 50 years old... There has been a lot of improvements in the last 50 years.

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      1. Yes you are right there are many improvements made in VAWT but whenever we begin to learn we start with basic. This is my beginning with wind turbine and with the agrce of ALLAH (GOD) we will learn all the new points of VAWT from my blog

        Thanks Mongrel shark for such sincere comment

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    2. I am an engineering student. Please contact me as soon as possible via email (karim_hatem72@yahoo.com) because i need help. I am working on VAWT as my degree project.

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      1. Ok, I have your request listed, I will contact you in one or two days. Thank you for contacting us.

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    3. Hello sir, This is Karthik from chennai, India. I'm an Mechanical Engineering student. As a part of academic curriculum, we are doing a project on VAWT. I kindly request you to help us in solving the problems associated with the design and analysis

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    4. will three blade topology would not make it self starting or it will still need an external push. kindly reply.

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      1. Regular three blade VAWT design will not be self starting but with magnetic bearing and advance design they can be made selfstart

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    5. hello sir am working on VAWT AS MY FINAL YEAR PROJECT was requesting to know whether there is any upgrade i can do on the recent maglev wind turbine my email is collinsmugacha@gmail.com

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    6. depends on the design of your vawt assembly (design). I improved and made a bit modification on my vawt design. And it doesn't have too much drag and friction. extremly smooth as silk.

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    7. HAWT is always more efficient when compared With VAWT because all blades can generate power at a time in HAWT

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    8. HAWT is more effiecient compared to VAWT no matter how many improvements have been done in the last 30years or so.

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