New Mexico State University
NMSU Team
STUDENTS:
- Diego Bénavidez - Civil Engineering
- Angelica Fernandez - Business Computer Information Sys
- Zachary Mills - Mechanical Engineering
- Marcos Muñoz - International Business & Economics
- Jacqueline Sánchez - International Business & Accounting
- Jazmin Garcia- Agricultural Biology
GENERAL OBJECTIVE: The NMSU-ITESM NSF Partnership for Innovation project is focused on the development of wind energy and technology along the Border. Specifically, the project is aimed at the commercialization of wind energy. The project has several facets, as follows:
- Develop an inexpensive but effective small wind turbine for grid applications;
- Identify good prospective windsites along the U.S.-Mexico Border;
- Commercialize the first windfarm along the U.S.-Mexico Border; and,
- Attract wind industry to the Border.
The research is meant to enhance existing wind energy research and development programs at NMSU and ITESM.
While large scale wind turbine technology has greatly advanced over the last twenty years and is now cost competitive with conventional fossil fuel electric generation technologies, small scale wind turbine technology as not enjoyed the same level of success of its larger cousin.
The major components of a typical wind turbine are the rotor (blades and hub), speed increaser, conversion system (generator for electricity), controls, and the tower. The output of the wind turbine, rotational kinetic energy, can be easily converted to electrical energy. The blades can have variable or fixed pitch, twist, and/or different airfoils. For units connected to the utility grid, 60 Hz, the generators can be synchronous, induction, variable frequency alternator or direct current with an inverter. Some horizontal axis wind turbines use slip rings to transfer power and control signals to ground level, while others have power and control cables that have slack in the line and use twist in the cable to account for yaw motion.
For this project, NMSU and ITESM will collaborate on wind resource assessment, promising windfarm site evaluations, and technology development. The final objective is the construction of grid-tied wind power station on the ITESM campus. This includes: blades, rotor assembly, transmission, generator, energy storage system, support platform, electronic control module, power management system, tower, sensors, and actuators. The general design concept is for a three-bladed Horizontal-Axis-Wind-Turbine with active pitch, coning, and orientation (yaw) control. Exact campus siting will be determined based on aerodynamic studies. Once the station is up and running it will be used as a research platform, the turbine will be scaled up, and the system will be connected to the campus utility grid. NMSU students will be allowed to conduct on the ITESM campus as part of a faculty/students exchange program.