The main purpose of this thesis was to make a wind measuring station and to use it to collect wind data in several locations in the city of Ljubljana. The station was based around an Arduino UNO and its modules that we used to collect and record different types of data. Data was saved onto a micro-SD card using an Arduino module and an accumulator was used to provide consistent power. The collected measurements were compared among themselves but also including data collected by the government agency ARSO in the surrounding area. We analysed the data and attempted to find differences in wind speed and consistency in a certain period of time. As a result, we attempted to confirm the existence of so-called urban wind islands, where the wind speed is much higher than its immediate surroundings. In this work we have also included the theoretical aspects of energy production and the findings of eligibility of installations of such types of wind turbines.
The second goal of this thesis was to chart the energy production characteristics of one small wind powered generator and figure out the relations of its produced current related to the wind speed. With the help of an Arduino, we measured the produced current, voltage and elapsed time. With the estimated characteristic we attempted to calculate the amount of energy we could produce on the locations we have previously analysed and how much power would we gain if urban wind islands were exploited. We attempted to find out if these differences are even strong enough to influence the production power of such a small plant and if these winds are strong and consistent enough to even present as a viable source of energy. At the end we compared the small wind powerplant with larger ones and tried to figure out if they would fare any better in the given situations.
In the first part of the thesis, we described the theoretical aspects of energy production using wind and the workings of an anemometer. We provided basic equations and principles along with some history of energy production.
In the second part we described the design and making of the measuring tools, their programming and use. The collected data was analysed and compared to ascertain the usefulness of small wind powerplants.
The analysis has shown that consistent energy production in cities is rather uncertain. Due to slow wind speeds installations of such small wind turbines is often economically wasted. This means that the specific price of energy produced in such cases is higher than most other sources. On roofs of higher buildings on certain locations the use of several powerplants would provide quite a lot of extra energy for personal use, as was shown in the example of the location on the high school of Anton Aškerc.
It was concluded that there exist locations in cities where wind islands do exist. A good example we found was the passage between the buildings TR2 and TR3. Such locations could raise the efficacy of wind powered generators by several times compared to other locations, but the economic efficiency would still not be achieved.
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