The Performance of Shrouded Wind Turbine at Low Wind Speed Condition

This study aims to investigate the performance of using a Diffuser on a horizontal wind turbine. Diffuser variation used has two different geometries : without an Inlet Shroud (L/D = 0.25) and with an Inlet Shroud (L/D = 0.39). The wind turbine’s test is performed on a wind tunnel with a low wind speed ranging from 1 m/s to 5 m/s. The results showed that with the addition of a Diffuser, the power produced shows an increased. Variation of the Diffuser without an Inlet Shroud is able to increase power efficiency up to 20.5% while the Diffuser with an Inlet Shroud can increase power efficiency up to 41.1%. This suggests that the use of a Diffuser is capable of improving the performance of the wind turbines by improving produced power efficiency.