Review of a Savonius wind turbine performance in low wind speed regions (Nigeria)

Electricity is important to the economic development of a country. The power supply in Nigeria is unstable, unreliable and inadequate. The power supply challenge pose a major constraint in the economic growth of the nation as the population continues to increase. There is an increase in the demand of power supply and no significant change in the power generation. The problem in the power sector has to be seriously and effectively addressed. Renewable energy presents opportunity for power generation for industrial and domestic use, and one of such source is the wind energy. This review examines the design consideration and methodology of a Savonius wind turbine and its performance. From the results of the computations a detailed specification was obtained. The height of the rotor was 1200 mm and the blade thickness was 2.5 mm. Also, from computations, the suitable diameter of the blade was 600 mm. The wind turbine was tested and the test result shows that at moderate wind speed of about 2.3 - 4.6 m/s, the voltage generated was 0.76 – 2.20 Veven though the rotor was not mounted at an elevated height. The voltage produced was directly proportional to the wind speed with Coefficient of determinant = 0.9518. This indicates that even at places with low wind speed in Nigeria, a reasonable amount of energy can be generated using a vertical axis wind turbine.