Foundation Power has partnered with Axis Energy of Australia to deliver a new micro wind turbine to deliver a compact, yet powerful new option for commercial microgrids. The Kittel turbines offer up to eight times greater power production per square foot than a solar installation of the same footprint. With the opportunity to produce energy in areas where space is limited, such as city and urban environments or where microgrids operate solely on solar and gensets like islands and remote facilities, a microgrid can see a potential increase in annual power output by up to 25 percent. Unlike horizontal axis turbines that must be spread apart by a distance at least 2.5 times their diameter to work efficiently, the Kittle turbine operates safely and silently in low turbulent flows, making it suitable for use in the urban environment.

The renewable energy source of wind, like solar, is considered an intermittent resource. Solar energy is limited to daylight hours, while a micro wind turbine makes it possible to generate power during a 24-hour cycle in optimal locations. With on-grid applications, there is often a mismatch between the timing of energy consumption and energy production; a percentage of renewable resources devoted to wind power allows the microgrid to collect any time of the day or night. 

A hybrid micro-grid using a Foundation Power Energy Management System can seamlessly interchange between wind, solar, diesel, the grid to provide uninterrupted, reliable, and low-cost electricity. The system is being monitored in real-time and was designed to respond to very stringent requirements such as almost instantaneous (<200 milliseconds) power supply in case of a grid power outage.

Foundation Power not only acts as generation and load, it performs these functions from either side of the meter.

THE KEY BENEFITS OF WIND IN A MICROGRID SYSTEM:

• Up to 8X more power than a solar installation of the same footprint

• Multiple turbines can be stacked vertically on a single mast

• Commercial-volume energy from limited urban environments

• The design allows for tight grouping vs. the 2.5x distance of others

• Designed to withstand up to a Category-4 Hurricane safely

• 20-year lifespan with basic low-cost routine maintenance 

REVOLUTIONARY WIND TURBINE TECHNOLOGY

Designed by Mr. Peter Kittle in Australia via comprehensive computational fluid dynamics and modeling to optimize its aerodynamic design and work near other turbines is the new standard for wind-generated renewable energy. The wind turbine’s structural design was tested and verified by CCG (Diab Group), a global composite engineering company with extensive wind industry experience for high strength and durability.