100 kW Fixed Gear Wind Turbine Optimzation

As global energy demand rises and the push for decarbonization intensifies, wind energy has emerged as a critical player in the renewable energy landscape. While modern wind turbines are often designed for variable-speed operation, fixed-speed systems remain relevant due to their mechanical simplicity, cost-effectiveness, and reliability due in specific grid or rural applications. This paper presents a customizable design technique for optimizing a 100-kW fixed-speed wind turbine system, using a rotor diameter and gear ratio as the primary design parameters. With a fixed pitch angle of 2.2 degrees, the objective is to maximize the power production by tailoring the turbine configuration to specific wind conditions. The novelty of this approach lies in its adaptability. Rather than designing a one-size-fits-all solution, the methodology used wind data from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, or NREL to fine-tune the system for certain environments. The turbine is modeled and simulated using a MATLAB-based script and performance outcomes are evaluated. Simulation results show that the design that produced the best achievable outcome used a rotor diameter of 18.55 meters and a gear ratio of 22. The total energy produced  by these selections is around 2.13 gigawatts.  These results demonstrate that a strategic change of rotor diameter and gear ratio would lead to significant improvements in energy capture compared to the baseline configurations.