Influence of Building Electric Demands on Performance of a Vertical Axis Micro Wind Turbine in Italy: Energy, Environmental and Economic Numerical Assessment

Vertical axis small-scale wind turbines are gaining popularity because of their capacity to generate electricity from a renewable source by using wind from all directions. In this study the performance of a commercial Savonius vertical axis micro wind turbine with a rated maximum output of 2200 W have been analyzed through the modeling and simulation environment TRNSYS by varying the served building while installed into 5 different Italian cities. In particular, three typical different building typologies (a single-family dwelling, a small district consisting of 5 single-family dwellings, as well as an office) have been considered and the corresponding electric demands have been developed via an innovative stochastic approach. The climatic conditions have been taken into account by means of detailed weather data files. The building-integrated wind turbine's performance has been contrasted with a reference scenario that corresponds to the same building but uses the central electric grid exclusively. The comparison has been carried out from an energy, environmental, and economic perspective. The findings of simulations indicate that using the wind turbine can cut down the amount of electricity purchased from the central electric grid up to 37.51%, the global equivalent carbon dioxide emissions up to 37.74% and the operating costs up to 85.93%, with a minimum simple pay-back period of 1.09 years.