The vertical axis wind turbine which is sometimes referred to as the (VAWT) for short, is a wind power machine that has been designed so that it maybe attached to a flat roof or stand on a platform in either the rural or urban environment. This type of generator has several advantages to it such as, because of the fact that it can be placed at the bottom close to the ground, the tower does not have to support the generator can be placed at the bottom, not only that but the turbine does not need to be pointed in the direction of the wind.
Although it certainly has its advantages, the turbine also has its disadvantages. Some of the disadvantages are that it is not an easy task to mount vertical axis turbines onto towers, because of this they normally have to operate slower and get the turbulent air flow close to the ground, which results in a less efficient energy extraction.
They only produce roughly 50% of the energy that a horizontal wind generator produces. They also have to be installed on a flat piece of land nothing steep and although steepness of an area might be a problem for a vertical wind generator, that is not a problem for a horizontal wind power generator.
However, like I said before it is not all negative there are also many advantages. Some of these include that seeing how the rotor blades are vertical, you do not have to have a yaw device so this reduces the need for a bearing and its cost. Vertical wind power generators can be at lower heights which can be useful when having to deal with laws that have certain height restrictions to them. Finally, smaller vertical wind generators are much easier to transport.
