Wind Turbines

Alvesta Ltd manufactures and distributes probably the World’s most efficient design of wind turbine under licence. This is the vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT) which has many advantages over the more usual “propeller” type horizontal axis wind turbine (HAWT).

These vertical axis wind turbines are self starting, turning at low wind speeds, usually around 1.5 m/s and generating useable power at about 3.5 m/s. They take wind from any direction and work in confused air flows. This means for most sites they are able to cope with wind which has been affected by buildings or trees and still generate meaningful amounts of electricity. VAWTS go into a stall in winds of about 25 m/s but continue to rotate and produce power and they can withstand winds of up to 55 m/s. HAWTs have to furl their blades at high wind speeds and generate much less power at higher wind speeds.

The company is based in Devon, where we are fortunate to have high mean wind speeds and we provide a large amount of our own energy with a turbine – to see your mean wind speed and how much available wind energy you have, visit the Dti website or contact your local weather station. Generally speaking you will need to have a mean wind speed of above 4.3 m/s or at least 150 days per annum at 5.5 m/s or more to make a turbine a viable proposition.

Click here to visit our wind turbine mini site for more infomation.