International Future Energy Challenge
The International Future Energy Challenge is a student competition run biannually by the IEEE Power Electronics Society (PELS) and the USA based Power Sources Manufacturers Association (PSMA) to promote the design and practical construction of leading edge electrical energy technologies. For 2009, the Department of Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering at Monash University is hosting the competition for the project “Wind Turbine Power Maximiser”, to promote student interest in power electronic converters, wind and power engineering.. Twelve teams from around the world are at present enthusiastically working to compete, and will be welcomed to Melbourne in July this year for the competition finals at Monash University. The three days of finals, from 15-17th July, will be the culmination of 18 months of teams working to design and build an electronic circuit to maximise the power from a wind turbine. For any particular wind speed, a wind turbine can only extract t he maximum amount of power from the wind if it is rotating at the correct speed. These circuits will endeavour to control the speed of the turbine and to convert the generator output to the right voltage to charge a battery. The battery is also to be protected against overcharging and the turbine protected against too high speeds and voltages.
Setting up the wind turbine in the Monash University wind tunnel.
More information: Peter Freere, Power Electronics Group, Dept. ECSE, Monash University, Australia. peter.freere@eng.monash.edu.au, www.energychallenge.org
