Pressurized wind tunnel tests show a way to raise turbine output

Researchers at MIT and collaborating institutions found in laboratory tests that changing a wind turbine's blade tip speed when it is misaligned with the wind can increase power output. They used a pressurized wind tunnel to make a 15-centimeter test turbine reproduce aspects of the airflow around much larger machines. The experiments also validated a model that engineers can run on ordinary laptops to test turbine controls. The researchers estimate that optimizing alignment, blade pitch and tip speed could add tens of thousands of dollars in annual revenue per turbine, but that estimate has not been demonstrated at a wind farm.