Wind Power Curves

 

Bergey XL1

This lesson is designed for students who have already learned about wind turbines and power output. It allows students to learn more about turbines and their characteristics through graphs and graphing analysis.

 

We highly recommend reading the lesson plan before working on this with students. We also recommend that your student have some exposure to wind energy and recording power data before working on this lesson.

 

 

Help Links/Materials for this Lesson

 

WindPower.org
More information on analyzing wind power curves. Detailed with a number of tips at looking at wind curve power data.

INL.gov
Software and power curve files in Excel format for a number of turbine manufacturers. Neat data — but this is definitely for HS and college students.

AWEA
Nice concise piece on how to interpret wind power curves. Also has links to other information about wind turbine data.

 

Turbine Manufacturer Data

 

These links will take you to some specification sheets from a variety of small turbine manufactures. You can examine output curves and read more about the characteristics of small wind turbines.

 

Some major manufacturers of small and large wind turbines include:

• Bergey Windpower
• Southwest Windpower
• Proven Windpower
• GE Windpower
• Vestas
• Suzlon
• Gamesa

 

These are some direct links to spec sheets:

• http://www.kidwind.org/pdfiles/XL1.Spec.pdf
• http://www.kidwind.org/pdfiles/Excel.Spec.Frt.pdf
• http://www.kidwind.org/pdfiles/proven.pdf
• http://www.windenergy.com/PRODUCTS/whisperh40.html
• http://entegritywind.com/performance.html

 

Download Wind Curves Excel Spreadsheet
This is an excel data sheet that was used to create the wind power curves in the lesson plan. Please feel free to use as you wish!

 

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