Enhancement of Savonius Rotor Performance with Guiding Nozzles Made of Solar Panels

Wind and solar are complementary energy sources, so using both of those in a hybrid stand-alone power system ensures significant reduction of generators' nameplate and energy storage capacity. The possibilities of solar and wind components to improve each other's performance usually stay out of consideration, not impossible though. We suggested using vertical bifacial solar panels arrays to increase the wind cross-section area, those are not radial but inclined, so are guiding the flow at the optimal angle to the rotor and reducing the drag of the returning blade. Enhanced air flow reduces the temperature of solar panels. Shading by neighbor deflectors was minimized considering the overall effect on system output. We have simulated the airflow in such a system to see the effect of the suggested approach, which turned out to be rather impressive: in poor wind conditions we got the annual energy output yield of 205 and for good wind conditions of 28 compared to the classic Savonius rotor, and those were greater than 12-fold wind cross-section increase. We have also optimized the rotor shape according to the new airflow conditions, which also has given additional yield compared to the Savonius rotor. Our special rotors have shown better performance at low wind speeds with cut-in below 1 m/s. Thus, the suggested layout allows getting at poor wind conditions more energy from a single turbine than at good wind conditions without it.