It was great to see it up close, although it wasn't turning at the time, and I'm hoping to get involved on the data logging side. At the moment, the output power (and other data) is stored within the inverter for 10 days or so, and needs to be downloaded onto a computer. This would be a good starting point for a data report (perhaps weekly), where a graph of performance over the week, average power output, percentage of uptime and total energy generated could be put online.
A better solution, however, would be an automated system where the realtime data could be put online and people could see the output over the last few minutes, rather than the previous week. This is not dissimilar to the National Grid's realtime demand graph (although obviously they are plotting something completely different!)
An obvious idea would be to leave a laptop on the whole time plugged into the data logger and the internet (there is a ethernet port nearby for access). However, this laptop would use quite a lot of electricity (around 15W continuously [source]). As the turbine is 1kW rated, which means that its maximum output power is 1000W and the actual average output will be much lower, having a standard laptop always plugged in is not a sustainable option.
A better idea may be to use a smaller computer with a lower power usage, such as the up and coming Raspberry Pi. This $25 or $35 dollar credit sized computer aims to use about 1W and would do the data logging and publishing job fine. However, this is not really in the spirit of EWB: it's better to build a system ourselves which can be built and maintained locally in developing countries than just going online and buying a product- nice as the Raspberry Pi is! There are commercial alternatives of data loggers, but these tend to be much more complete products and very expensive- not ideal for a small rural community in a developing country.
I'll keep you updated on how all this goes, but I did want to ask that if anyone is interested or knows anything about all this data logging stuff, please do get in touch! I could use all the help I can get.
Finally, here's a picture of the wind turbine up close with a EWBer for scale!
I would suggest Raspberry Pi or Arduino in my opinion Both projects are Open Source and therefore in future would feasibly allow developing countries greater access to the core components and there are instructions to build the boards by purchasing components individually. I've read that they have been selling them to South America for colleges and universisities. I would imagine like all electronics, any sophisticated component would be difficult to replace in a developing country. I guess it's a toss up really. A wind turbine can still run without it, but it's nice to know this output information.
ReplyDeleteIt's a difficult choice, because we are setting up a system (i.e. data logging and publishing online) which is unlikely to be that useful for a community wind project in a developing country, but we want to approach it as if it was a likely option.
DeleteThe Raspberry Pi or Arduino are both very exciting projects in their own right, and may actually form the basis for getting people in developing countries online and using computers, as the power requirement is so low (15 or 80 times less than a laptop or desktop, respectively). [source as in the post]
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