Wind Energy Research at
Boise State University
Lewandowski Wind Farm
Test Facility
Resource Assessment
& Siting
Current & Recent Activities
• Distributed Wind Energy in Idaho
•Wind for irrigators study
•Active drivetrain control for small wind turbines for variable speed operation
•Retrofit controllers at the Lewandowski Wind Farm
•Series connected induction generators for multi-speed operation
•Rotor blade design studies for low wind rotors
• Student capstone design projects
• 5 Mechanical and Electrical Engineering design projects since 2003
• Energy storage solutions for wind farms
• compressed fluid energy storage
• mechanical energy storage using flywheels
• hydrogen as a storage medium
One of the three Micon ® 108 wind turbines at the
Lewandowski Wind Farm. Boise State is unique in that
it has access to a grid-connected wind farm for
research purposes.
Design, Modeling & Control
Of Innovative Drivetrains
Fixed Ring
Planetary
Gear System
1000
1
s
-K-
Wc1 (radssec)
W_In
ω
c
ωs
W_Out
Planetary
Gear System
Wc2
W_c
ω
c
[Wc]
ωWss
Scope
Goto5
Wr2
τc
Terminator
τr
Scope5
Torque
τs
τc
Goto3
[Tr]
• Idaho Board of Education Research Initiation Grant
• Idaho Power Company
[Ts]
From4
Torque1
Sine Wave
Scope3
Product4
[Wc]
From7
[Wr]
Goto2
Goto
[Tc]
τr
Ps
P's
Pr
From6
[Ws]
W's1
Pr
From1
B
[Wr]
• Idaho National Laboratory
Ps
[Tr]
.022
Pin
From8
[Ts]
Ts
Pout
Product
[Ws]
Goto4
τs
• Lewandowski Wind Farm
Product5
From3
Scope4
• Private donations
• Bonneville Power Admin. (pending)
• Idaho Energy Division
Pin
From5
[Ws]
Ws2
ωWrr
[Tc]
Goto1
• United States Department of Energy
Community Partners
Scope1
T_aero (Nm)
Research Funding
FloWorks® Flow Field Visualization from
a student capstone design project,
assessing the Boise State engineering
campus for possible turbine siting.
• Power Engineers
Torues (Nm)
[Tc]
Simulink® block diagram of twostage planetary differential gear
train.
From10
• Synthetic Energy
[Wc]
From13
[Ts]
[Ws]
From9
From12
Angular
Velocity
(rads/sec)
Scope2
[Tr]
[Wr]
From2
From11
For further information contact: John Gardner, director (jgardner@boisestate.edu) or Todd Haynes, program manager (ToddHaynes@boisestate.edu)