Question

your neighbour John would like to discuss one of his technology ideas with you. Last summer, he was driving south with his friends to spend a day at Blackpool Pleasure Beach. After passing one of the wind farms next to the M74, he realised that he could install a wind turbine on the car to charge the car’s batteryand to generate electricity while the car is moving, thus recovering energy and improving fuel efficiency. Being safety conscious, he also thinks that the turbine should not operate when the car is parked or stopped.

1. a) He knows that you are an electrical machines and power electronics expert and would like toknow your opinion. What would your advice be? Is this a good idea? If you believe John’s ideais a good one, draw a block diagram to realise the energy recovery system, giving details of its main components

2. b) John is very adventurous and he spends weeks cycling around the world without access to the grid. He would, therefore, like to apply the same idea to his bicycle. In this way, he can keep his mobile phone and GPS charged and can save some weight carrying a lighter battery. Whatwould your advice be in this case? If you believe John’s idea is a good one, draw a blockdiagram to realise the battery charging system, giving details of its main components

Answer 1

A)Yes , it is a good idea to exploit renewable form of wind energy !!

Block diagram :

Description:

Here we have

1) Induction generator - that converts mechanical energy of turbine sets into AC electricity

2) Step down transformer and rectifier - Lowers the voltage level of AC and converts it to DC voltage (as batteries are rated less than 100 V voltage )

B) Yes he can make this arrangement over his cycle to use wind energy

Block diagram :

DC generator :

Converts mechanical rotation of shafts available from turbine to electrical energy in form of DC voltage , that DC can be directly feed to GPS module and phone charging socket !!