A Study on Vertical Axis Wind Turbine for Effective Harnessing of Wind Energy in Satara Region

With continuously increasing energy crisis occurring in the world it will be a prime important to investigate alternative methods of generating power other than fossil fuels i.e. conventional sources. Wind energy from non-conventional energy sources is one of the biggest sources of energy available all around us, it means unlike solar energy cannot be harness during night. Vertical axis wind turbines (VAWT) offer similar efficiencies as compared with the Horizontal axis wind turbines (HAWT) and in fact have several distinct advantages. One advantage is that unlike their HAWT counterparts, they can be placed independently of wind direction. This makes them perfect for locations where the wind direction changes continuously. In India there are various geographically advantageous places where wind energy can be harness very effectively because of useful environmental conditions for wind power generation. Satara is one of such places in Maharashtra situated in Sahyadri Hills, where wind velocity is adequate for the generation of energy. Thousands of horizontal axis wind mills are installed by various national and multinational organizations for generation of electricity. But due to the direction changing nature of the wind sometimes it is ineffective to use Horizontal axis wind mills. This study is an attempt to study effectiveness of implementing Vertical axis wind mills in this region. In this paper study of various research papers published by many of the researchers nationally and internationally is done.