Dynamic simulation of different vertical axis micro wind turbines serving a typical house in Italy: Assessment of energy, environmental and economic impacts

Scientific interest on small-scale wind turbines (power output lower than 50 kW) is significantly increased in the last years. In this paper the performance of four commercial models of small-scale vertical axis wind turbines (with different power outputs of 1100, 2200, 3100 and 6300 W) serving a typical single-family house have been analyzed by means of the TRaNsient SYStems simulation tool (TRNSYS) upon varying the climatic conditions of 5 Italian cities (Naples, Rome, Milan, Palermo, Alghero). Their performance has been compared with those corresponding to the same building while served by the central electric grid from energy, environmental and economic points of view. The simulations highlighted that the utilization of wind turbine allows to reduce the electric energy imported from the grid, the equivalent global CO2 emissions and the operating costs up to 59.36%, 59.68% and 142.39%, respectively. The study revealed that both the commercial model of the wind turbine model as well as the installation city greatly affect the performance. Specifically, the best results have been achieved for the 2200 W wind turbine, whatever the city is; for a given wind turbine model, the minimum simple pay-back period (1.3 years) is obtained for the city of Palermo.