This summer, wind turbines from five manufacturers will be installed on the rooftop of the Boston Museum of Science. The Wind Turbine Lab, a project of the museum in partnership with the Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust, is designed to test the performance of small wind turbines for use on the rooftops of homes and small businesses.

Small-scale, roof-mounted wind turbines have not been tested extensively, resulting in a dearth of information about their performance characteristics that makes it challenging for homeowners, facilities managers, and architecture firms to accurately assess the feasibility of installing such systems. "Despite a year of collecting data on the wind at the museum, we still don't really know enough about the turbines to predict their performance," says David Rabkin, Farinon Director for Current Science and Technology at the museum. The new lab hopes to address this issue and provide as much information as possible about the performance of the turbines.

The wind turbines that will be installed are a 1.2-kilowatt (kW) Mariah Power Windspire, a 1.9-kW Southwest SkyStream 3.7, a 1.5-kW Cascade Engineering Swift, a 6-kW Proven 6, and five 1-kW AeroVironment AVX1000 turbines mounted on the building parapets. The turbines range in height from seven to 40 feet and have rotor diameters ranging from five to 18 feet.

Rooftop wind turbines have to overcome unique difficulties of wind patterns in an urban environment. Ground clutter from trees and buildings cause wind patterns to be irregular, which is why large-scale commercial wind turbines are erected in open fields, where open country allows for more consistent, stronger wind. Information from the lab will help to fine tune future designs.

You can read more about this project by visiting RenewableEnergyWorld.com.

PERSONALLY SPEAKING
Distributed generation technologies will play an important role in transitioning to renewable sources of energy, and small turbines mounted on buildings could be a big part of that. It's great that the Boston Museum of Science is building this lab-not only will it provide information to manufacturers to improve designs, it will also educate the public on new possibilities for power generation. I look forward to seeing the results! ~Kevin

Kevin Maddaford is the Consumer Services Manager and Resource Development Associate for Renewable Choice Energy.