IEC standards do exist for SWTs (IEC61400-2 for design requirements for SWT) and there are applicable standards from large wind, such as power performance or noise emissions measurements however, something more has to be done in order to develop more appropriate standards and simpler ways to display the results obtained to end users. SWTs have great potential but some challenges have to be addressed to produce reliable machines. Most of the SWTs existing on the market are machines that have developed in an almost ‘hand crafted’ way, with lower maturity compared to that achieved by large wind turbines. These differences affect all of the subsystems: mainly the control and electrical systems, but also the design of the rotor. The technology of small wind turbines is clearly different from that used in large wind turbines. Both these figures contrast with the specific costs of large wind turbines, which are in the region of EUR 1,500/kW.Ĭoncerning the performance analysis for small wind turbines, the average power density is around 0.15 to 0.25 kW/m2 because of the limited wind potential in sites where the energy is required, compared to typical sites for large wind turbines in wind farms. Average costs for current stand-alone wind turbines vary from EUR 2,500 to 6,000 per installed kW, while in distributed generation, a small wind turbine can vary from EUR 2,700 to 8,000 per installed kW, the additional cost mainly due to the power converter required for grid connection. However, in spite of the maturity reached on the development of the large- and medium-sized wind technology for wind farms, the state of the art for small wind turbines is far from technological maturity and economical competitiveness.
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