Use of Small-Scale Wind Turbines in Road Lighting

Abstract

In this research, it has been studied energy consumption by luminaires, used in road lighting, which is providing by small-scale wind turbines. As the application area, the Bitlis-Rahva region, which is the new settlement of the city centre of Bitlis, was chosen. For the study, the wind data at a height of 10 m representing the road lighting poles were recorded with a data logger every 10 minutes (for 1 year). In many studies in the literature, the Weibull distribution has been used in the analysis of wind data and determination of wind energy potential. It has been seen that the accuracy of this method is high and therefore the Weibull distribution is chosen for the power generation capacity of the small-scale wind turbine to be used in road lighting. The maximum likelihood method was used to determine the parameters of the Weibull density function. Considering the dimensions of the lighting poles and the loads they can carry, it was concluded that it would be appropriate to use small-scale vertical-axis wind turbines for energy generation on these poles. It has been determined that the amount of energy produced by the wind turbine on the road lighting pole is much more than the luminaire on a lighting pole will consume.