The Riva Calzoni M30 wind turbine will be constructed and tested at the ENEL wind power plant at Alta Nurra in Sardinia. A model of it will first be constructed and tested in a windtunnel. The 200 KW wind turbine will be connected to a DC Electric generator and an inverter and will be connected to the local grid. The innovation concerns the fixed pitch of the single blade and the regulation of the rotor speed with an electro magnetic brake. The annual yield is estimated to be 152 MWh.
The 200 kW M30 type wind turbine was installed in October 1989. Within 1990 about 53 MWh have been produced in about 1000 hours of automatic operation. Due to several technical problems during the first period of operation, the performance was much lower than predicted.
A lot of experience has been gained on the monitoring a single blade rotor, which is pitch controlled at fixed speed operating conditions.
It does not appear at the present stage that the WT can be cheaper than the equivalent two or three bladed machines. Riva Calzoni estimates that about 200 units will be installed by 1995. The utility ENEL has already ordered 38 units. The results from this project were also being used to develop a larger 55 m, 800 kW machine (see also project WE/00434/89/IT).
A new design of a single blade wind turbine has been constructed.
A model of it has been tested in a windtunnel. The 33 m diameter, 200 KW, single blade, downwind, wind turbine was installed at the ENEL wind power plant at Alta Nurra in Sardinia. The Riva Calzoni M30 wind machine is connected to a double generator and feeds to the electricity grid. Power regulation has been achieved by pitch control. With an average mean windspeed of 5 m/sec it was estimated that 152 MWh/yr would be produced. According the contractor the cost of the KWh was estimated at 188 LIT which has to be compared to the 141 LIT of the conventional cost. It then leads to a payback time of 12 years. During the realization of the project Riva Calzoni cooperated with MBB and ENEA.