Controle da direção de um gerador eólico em relação à direção do vento predominante

Abstract

In Brazil, over the last years, many researchers have been conducting directed researches in the field of renewable energies, mainly wind energy, and the wind power has been getting a highlight, despite the few existing wind power plants. The wind power is produced from the air currents, which a flow is several directions. Depending on the position of the generator in relation to the direction of the wind, is possible to produce more or less energy. Therefore, by controlling the position of the generator and knowing the direction of the wind, is possible to improve the efficiency in the production of electric power of this generator. Based on a generator built in the institution, the work developed an algorithm to control the position of the generator, according to the wind conditions at the installation site, which makes the decisions to position the generator in the direction of the predominant wind in approximately 30 seconds . In addition, the real conditions of the winds were simulated in the chosen location and, through a model, the controller's performance was observed in a prototype of the generator in reduced size. The controller had satisfactory results for the following situations: a lot of variation of wind, little variation of wind and continuity in the same direction of the wind. For discrepant points the expected behavior was not observed, but this didn't have many impact on the final result.