Design, Fabrication, and Aerodynamic Testing of a Vertical Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT) for Berekuso, Ghana

The abundant supply of sustainable, reliable, and cost-effective electricity is crucial to Ghana’s socio-economic development. Hence it is essential to venture into renewable energy. This paper details the design, fabrication, and testing of a low-cost wind turbine prototype for Berekuso, a small town in Ghana. Lean research was undertaken to determine the Berekuso residents’ needs, which informed the selection of a suitable type of turbine. Three different materials and fabrication methods were used to construct the rotor blades on the authors’ campus. Each was tested to determine the blade with the best lift-to-drag ratio. The aerodynamic performance of the wind turbine was tested experimentally and through numerical simulation. The results reveal that the blades perform similarly, with a stall angle of 150, but have different lift-to-drag ratios because of the difference in surface smoothness. Also, the prototype’s experimental performance matches the results of the numerical simulation.