Wind turbine inverter

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courierguy
Forum Member
Posts: 16
Joined: Thu May 04, 2023 4:41 pm
My RE system: Mate, Outback VFXR inverter/charger

Wind turbine inverter

Post by courierguy »

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My very reliable (16 years) and trouble free 2.5 KW grid tied wind turbine lost it's SMA "WindyBoy" inverter, and they are no longer in production. It failed, the turbine is fine, it's made to last, (just the alternator weighs 155 pounds) and in a no load condition it's dump load keeps things under control.

After the 3 phase AC enters the control box, it is rectified (I believe the term is) into DC, high voltage DC. With no inverter or other load connected, tests show it rapidly climbs to 500 volts and then two things happen at the same time: My voltmeter reaches it's 500 volt upper limit, and the dump load clamps down, without fail, to keep it from over speeding. I don't want to throw the entire turbine away just because the inverter failed, so as a test I temporarily hooked up a Solis 3.6 KW inverter, which in theory at least should have worked, as it's voltage upper range is 600 VDC. But the turbine controller didn't like it for some reason, and diverted most of it's power to the dump load. I need to find a way to dumb down the controller, and also get the high voltage down to a level where I can charge a 48 VDC battery, connect to a VFXR inverter and thus to the grid. The inverter in effect acting like a charge controller, exactly like the VFXR in my 24 VDC hydro system does, sending power to the grid as fast as it arrives keeping everything nice and stable at 25.4 VDC. It's putting out 843 watts into the grid, 24/7, as I type this, and does that for 9 months out of the year.

IF I can get the power produced by the turbine to the battery, the VFXR will take it from there, and again like my hydro system, I'd use a load diverter to shunt the power to the existing dump load when the grid goes down. Something tells me it may not be a good idea to connect the high voltage DC directly to a 48 VDC battery, while something else tells me "try it, the battery will bring the voltage down, and the inverter will shunt the power away as fast as it comes in, preventing the battery from over charging." I'd appreciate any input. And, I just now noticed the UFO above the wind turbine, or is that a cloud, different from the other clouds that day?
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Wrango7777
Forum Member
Posts: 8
Joined: Fri Sep 21, 2018 9:53 am
My RE system: Outback GS8048 Inveter, FM80 charger x 2 ea, Solarworld 270 watt panels x 27 ea, Mate 3 controller, 24 ea Leoch batteries 1400 AH 48v system
Location: Northern New Mexico mountains Elevation: 8800 ft.

Re: Wind turbine inverter

Post by Wrango7777 »

Is the turbine a 48 volt 3 phase unit? if so, I would think that the no load condition is making it read high?

I just installed a 48 volt 3 phase 3kw turbine on my system, but I have it connected to a charge controller which has its own rectifier I would assume. now am waiting for enough wind to see how it will produce during cloudy/stormy days.

Oh, and there is another unidentified flying object in the pic just below the sky line to the left. Birds?
jbakker
Forum Guru
Posts: 295
Joined: Fri Feb 23, 2018 5:47 am
My RE system: 2 VFX3648 Inverters 2 FM60 150VDC Charge Controllers Mate3 5 KW of panels 15kw JC Onan NG Generator made in 1975.
1 Midnite Classic 150, FNDC. I have the Volt battery but it's not being used.
Now using 48 volt 800 AH Narada Lithium cells and QUCC 300 AMP 48 VDC relay BMS
Location: Goderich Ontario Canada

Re: Wind turbine inverter

Post by jbakker »

https://www.midnitesolar.com/products.p ... tCat_ID=25

Midnite Solar may have something that would work for you. Contact them and ask.
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