wind energy controller

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Don't live in the Windy City? You don't have to. A small turbine could still provide half your home's electricity, thanks to a simple twist on a standard device. How It Works: In a small-scale wind turbine, the wind rotates the turbine, which spins the generator, which produces AC voltage. But because the wind speed is variable, the voltage is also variable and may be too low to be stored in batteries or fed into the grid. Andy Knight, associate professor at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Alberta, leads a team that has come up with a system that enables turbines to harvest voltage in relatively calm conditions. Payoff: "In a region that's borderline as to whether or not it's worth it to install a turbine"--that is, places where average wind speeds are less than 11 mph or so--"this controller could make all the difference," Knight says. A study he conducted at the Edmonton International Airport indicates that his team's system could increase a small turbine's energy production by 50 percent over a three-month period. That means a 6-ft.-dia. turbine could produce 24 kilowatt-hours (kwh) a day. The standard U.S. household uses 35 kwh a day. read the whole article in http://men.msn.com/greenarticlepm.aspx?cp-documentid=702606&page=1