EACWE4 — The Fourth European & African Conference on Wind Engineering

J. Náprstek & C. Fischer (eds); ITAM AS CR, Prague, 11-15 July, 2005, Paper #210

Small wind turbines for the built environment

G.J.W. van Bussel1, S.M. Mertens2

ABSTRACT: There is a growing interest for the use of wind power at buildings. But wind turbine deployment
in the built environment is inherently more complicated than in rural, open spaces. Safe and reliable
operation of wind turbines in the highly turbulent built environment is specialised and technically challenging.
In most situations the deployment of existing (small) wind turbines will not be very successful due to the fact
that they are not adapted to the complex wind environment. Several novel designs are discussed, as well as the
results of a conceptual design study for a wind power plant on top of the Freedom Tower of the new World
Trade Centre in New York. Non-technical barriers such as economics, bureaucratic and regulatory issues are
not being addressed, although they are very important for successful implementation of wind turbines in the
built environment.

1 INTRODUCTION 2 EXISTING EXAMPLES OF URBAN WIND

TURBINES
There is a growing interest for the use of wind power
at buildings. The most outspoken example is Two examples of existing wind turbine-building
inevitably the design for the Freedom Tower, the combinations can be found at the Saxion hogeschool
new landmark to be realised on the World Trade in Deventer (NL) and at the main office of the
Centre site in New York City, USA. In this design, insurance company OHRA located near Arnhem
integration of wind turbines in the top of the building (NL). Figures 1 and 2 show the wind turbines on top
is proposed to comply with the New York City green of these buildings.
building charter.
Wind turbine deployment in the built
environment is inherently more complicated than in
rural, open spaces. In successfully exploiting wind
energy in the built environment three major issues
can be identified: Wind resource assessment and
wind characterisation around buildings, structural
integration of wind turbines with buildings and
special urban wind turbine design requirements.
Safe and reliable deployment of wind turbines in
the highly turbulent built environment is specialised
and technically challenging. In almost all situations
the use of existing (small) wind turbines will be
problematic due to the fact that they are not adapted Figure 1: Saxion building
to the complex wind environment and to additional
building related requirements. Some of these
requirements are the severe noise restrictions and the
ability to match the structural and esthetical integrity
of buildings. This means that new ways need be
found in the design of new wind turbines that do fit
the requirements for the built environment.
Non-technical barriers such as economics,
bureaucratic and regulatory issues will not be
addressed, although they are very important for
successful implementation of wind turbines in the
built environment.

Figure 2: OHRA Building

1
Dr. Gerard J.W. van Bussel Associate Professor, section Wind Energy, Faculty Aerospace Engineering TU Delft, Kluijverweg 1,
2629HS Delft, The Netherlands e-mail: g.j.w.vanbussel@lr.tudelft.nl
2
Ir. ing. Sander M. Mertens, Former PhD Student, TU Delft, The Netherlands, presently affiliated at DHV Building and
Construction, P.O. Box 19054, 2500CB Den Haag, The Netherlands e-mail sander.mertens@dhv.nl

1
 The Fourth European & African Conference on Wind Engineering, Paper #210
Figure 3: Vertical axis wind turbine on top of the central
stairway of the Saxion building
The vertical axis wind turbine op top of the
Saxion building, see figure 3, is used as an
experimental set-up for students. In the second
application a similar wind turbine is used to provide
electrical power for the illumination of the skybox
on top of the building.
The wind turbines used on these buildings are
modifications of existing products on the market.
Their aerodynamic behaviour has been determined in
wind tunnel experiments by Toet and Vermeer
(1996) and by Mertens (2000). Their working
principle is determined by the drag difference
between the protruding and the retracting parts of the
rotor. This leads to an inherent low aerodynamic
efficiency. In sections 4 and 6 the aerodynamic
conversion efficiency of vertical axis wind turbines
is elaborated further.
3 POTENTIAL MARKETS FOR SMALL URBAN
WIND TURBINES
In The Netherlands a number of studies have been
performed regarding the potential market for urban
wind turbines on buildings. These studies reveal that
the opportunities for locating wind turbines on
buildings are quite substantial. The most promising
combination is found in a building of several floors,
well exposed to the wind with respect to
neighbouring buildings, equipped with a fairly small
wind turbine. Estimates regarding the number of
buildings that are potential locations for rooftop
mounting of wind turbines are found in an MSc
thesis from Koehorst (2001) and amount some
40,000 buildings.
In a later study, performed within the framework
of a Dutch R&D programme, kiem-EET by Timmers
et al (2003), a sales volume of around 1000 wind
2
turbines per year was estimated (with a swept area
between 6 and 10 m2).
Finally a third survey was made within the DEN-
NOVEM (the Dutch national Sustainable Energy
programme) by Lakeman et al (2002), where it was
concluded that the potential market for Urban wind
turbines was in the order of 50 to 60 MW in
capacity. With an average capacity of 3 to 5 kW this
equals to about 10,000 to 20,000 windturbines.
In a strategy document submitted by the
American Wind Energy Association small wind
turbine committee chaired by Bergey (2002), a
projected total of 75,000 MW wind power capacity
by 2020 is provided by small to medium scale
systems. Of this amount some 15,000 MW is
foreseen at locations that are (also) suitable for
rooftop mounting of wind turbines. So a potential
market of similar extent as in the EU is foreseen for
the USA.
There is thus a potential worldwide market of
millions of units, provided the cost targets with
respect to cost of electricity can be met. It should be
taken into account that the targeted cost for urban
wind turbine electricity is a level below the domestic
purchasing price of electricity, which is substantially
higher than its average production costs (typically
three to four times higher in NW Europe).
4 REQUIREMENTS FOR WINDTURBINES IN
THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT
Modern wind turbines are usually developed
according to the three bladed horizontal axis wind
(HAWT) principle, operating with a high tip speed,
typically around 60 m/s. They usually operate in
well-exposed wind conditions, away from populated
areas. Their dimensions have grown to well beyond
100 m. in height, and to rotor diameters of similar
dimensions. Wind turbines for use in the built
environment however have to be developed using a
different set of design starting points. The design of
such urban wind turbines is driven by the following
requirements:
x Good performance in complex winds
x Safe operation in the urban environment
x Low noise level
x Simple, rugged design
x Minimised maintenance
x Aesthetic appearance
With respect to the first point it already becomes
clear that the design solution will look different for
application on rooftops of buildings. Horizontal axis
 G.J.W. van Bussel, S.M. Mertens
wind turbines make use of a yawing system to track
variations in wind direction. In urban areas, and
definitively on top of buildings, wind direction
variations can be considerable. HAWT’s then have a
clear disadvantage, since the yaw system, is in
general not able to follow these fast and extensive
variations. This results in a continuous misalignment
of the wind turbine with the direction of the wind,
and an inherent loss in efficiency. This is a major
reason for the preference of a vertical axis wind
turbine (VAWT) for rooftop application.
The aerodynamic efficiency of a wind turbine
depends upon other things on the way the wind
energy is converted into mechanical power. A high
aerodynamic efficiency can be achieved when the
working principle is based upon lift forces. Such
wind turbines make use of airfoil shaped blades in
order to generate their driving force. This is usually
the case for HAWT’s. Concerning VAWT’s there is
a wider range of operating principles. Lift based
VAWT’s usually run fast and have slender blades
(see fig 5), just like modern HAWT’s.
Figure 4: Aerodynamic principle of operation of the
Darrieus rotor.
This in contrast to drag driven wind turbines, which
achieve a significantly lower aerodynamic efficiency
and use a large amount of material, see e.g. figure 3.
Therefore a lift driven VAWT will be the most
appropriate design choice for application on
rooftops.
The Darrieus windturbine is the most widely
known example of a lift driven VAWT. Its working
principle is depicted in figure 4. The energy
extraction takes place during the cross flow phases
of the blades, i.e. when the blades move
perpendicular to the oncoming wind. With respect to
a modern HAWT the Darrieus wind turbine has a
3
somewhat lower efficiency in an ideal undisturbed
low turbulence wind environment. In the built
environment the important advantage of this turbine
is that it will run smoothly in high turbulence winds
having intrinsically large directional wind
fluctuations. And this advantage can easily outweigh
the higher efficiency of a HAWT under smooth wind
conditions.
An example of a modern Darrieus wind turbine
located on a flat roof is shown in figure 5. This
machine is equipped with a small Savonius rotor in
the centre acting as a start-up aid..
Figure 5: Globuan, a modern Darrieus wind turbine
located on a flat roof.
5 LOCATING WINDTURBINES ON BUILDINGS
Flows around buildings are inherently complex. At
first the topology of the terrain in the oncoming
direction of the wind determines the local wind
structure in terms of average wind speed; vertical
gradient and turbulence intensity. Secondly the
topology of the building itself and of adjacent
buildings will determine the local structure.
5.1 Characterisation of the flow on top of buildings
An example of the complex flow conditions that
occur around a square building is shown in figure 6.
Here the flow around a square obstacle in a wind
tunnel is visualised. A separation bubble on top of
the obstacle, starting at the leading edge can be
observed as well as a closed cell vortex on the
windward side and a large separation area at the
leeward side. Unfortunately the details of the flow,
such as depicted in figure 6, are very difficult to
predict, even with state of the art CFD methods. Yet
it is possible to develop a fairly simple theoretical
model to calculate the performance of wind turbines
located in such complex flows.
 The Fourth European & African Conference on Wind Engineering, Paper #210
Figure 6: Visualisation of flow around a
square building (Van Dyke 19xx).
The figures 7 and 8 show the approach used for
the development of such a model. In figure 7 again a
visualisation of the flow is shown. but this time for a
two-dimensional model in parallel flow. With these
wind tunnel visualisations it is possible to determine
the coefficients of an assumed semi elliptical
boundary streamline fitted to the streamlines seen in
the visualisation. Such an elliptic streamline
separates the outer flow around the building from the
inner flow. In the outer area flow acceleration may
appear, but apart from that no other flow phenomena
occur. It is then possible to derive a fairly simple
potential flow solution in a semi-infinite plane, with
a superimposed semi-ellipse, figure 8. This results in
a velocity profile perpendicular to the plane,
showing the area of flow acceleration.
It is now possible to apply the classical
momentum theory approach in band wise layers of
flow over the semi-ellipse as is demonstrated by
Mertens (2001). It turns out that a significant flow
acceleration effect is present, which however is
restricted to a fairly small area. The wind in this area
Figure 7: Flow visualisation of the flow around a two
dimensional obstacle
4
speed will be about 20% higher than the undisturbed
wind speed far in front of the building, Mertens
(2002).
5.2 Determination of the separating streamline
For roof location of windturbines it is evidently of
great importance to determine the height of the
separation bubble on top of the building. Locating
(part of the) rotor will inevitably lead to loss of
performance, and probably also to increased fatigue
loads. Thus methods need to be found to determine
the location of the separating streamline. This the
streamline separating the outer flow passing over the
building with an increase velocity from the flow
Figure 8: Assumed streamline boundary
“captured” in the separation bubble on top of the
building and the wake on the leeward side.
Wilson (1979) has developed an empirical model for
the growth rate of the wake behind cubical (flat
roofed) buildings:
y 0.28H 0.67 x 0.33 (1)
where y is the vertical extent of the wake above the
building, x is the horizontal distance in the direction
of the oncoming wind and H is the smallest
crosswind dimension of the upwind façade. The x
coordinate starts at the windward edge of the roof
and thus the height of the separating streamline is
given by (1)
Mertens (2002) performed calculations on separating
streamlines using the CFD code Fluent. Results of
these calculations for a two-dimensional building
(infinite horizontal crosswind dimension) are shown
in figure 10 for different values of the roughness
height z0 of the surface upwind of the building. The
quantity b in this graph refers to the building depth.
The empirical description found by Wilson,
equation (2), is also depicted in the figure for the
situation H = 0 (the two-dimensional case). As can
be seen there is a reasonable agreement between
both results, for an upwind roughness height of 1 m.,
certainly for locations farther away from the
windward edge of the building.
 G.J.W. van Bussel, S.M. Mertens
Evidently these two-dimensional calculations
show the more conservative results. CFD
calculations on 3 dimensional buildings performed
by Mertens (2005) in the framework of his PhD
study shows that the calculated positions of the
separating streamlines are indeed somewhat closer to
the flat rooftop surface than the distance obtained
from either the Wilson formula or from the graphs in
figure 9.
Figure 9: Fluent CFD calculations, using the “realizable” k-İ
turbulence model, of the location of the separating streamline
for a 2 dimensional building (20 m high, 10 m deep) in
comparison with the two dimensional Wilson model .
From the calculations is it became clear that for a
windturbine located at the centre of the roof a
minimum height of 25% of the depth of a building is
required for the lowest part of the rotor. For typical
residential apartment buildings or office buildings
From left to right: AES (Germany), Windside (Finland) and Ropatec (Italy) windturbines.
Figure 10: High solidity and predominantly drag driven VAWT’s of various make.
5
this is in the order of 12 to 20 meters. This means
minimal tower height of 5 meters underneath the
rotor.
5.3 Suitable windturbine dimensions
In the case that the whole stream tube in which the
wind turbine is located is in the higher wind speed
region the energy increase is equal to the third power
of 1.2. Thus the aerodynamic power increase is 1.7
compared to a wind turbine in the same parallel flow
without the building. When the wind turbine is
located on the right spot on the roof this increase can
be achieved for all wind directions. It however limits
the dimensions of the wind turbine to something in
the order of 20% of the characteristic height of a
building. For uniform parallel oncoming flow over a
mid- to high-rise its building height is equal to this
characteristic height. Thus the limitation yields:
D d 0.2h . (2)
For mid- to high-rise buildings with a
characteristic dimension of say 50 to 100 m, the
wind turbine diameter will therefore be from 10 up
to about 20 m, in order to take full advantage of the
speed up effect. This means that such wind turbines
will be relatively small when compared to the rotor
diameters of 80 to 90 m, which are nowadays
common for large commercial wind turbines.
Windturbines of such size will generally not
require significant modifications of the building
structure, which is evidently an advantage when
retrofitting buildings.
 The Fourth European & African Conference on Wind Engineering, Paper #210
For location of windturbines at the edges or solidity. So a large amount of material is needed for
alongside building similar arguments hold. There the the construction of the rotor.

From left to right: (DWT) Dermont Wind Turbine (USA) , Neoga (Netherlands) and Turby (Netherlands)
Figure 11: Lift driven VAWT’s of various make.

characteristic dimension of the wind turbine
perpendicular to the building should also comply
with equation (2) in order to take full advantage of
the acceleration of the flow. In these cases there is
however a strong directionally dependency of the
performance. Wind turbines located in the windward
edge of a building, or along the sides of the
windward façade may have a longitudinal dimension
equal to the respective edge or side of the building.
The disadvantage of such location is evidently that
the performance will be strongly dependent upon the
direction of the wind. The windward edge of the roof
of a building will become a leeward edge in wind of
the opposite direction, and will thus lead to a
situation in which the windturbine is located in the
wake of the building with a highly turbulent and low
wind speed area. A similar argument evidently holds
for the sides of a building.
In similar fashion examples of lift driven VAWT
designs are given in figure 11. It can be seen clearly
seen that all three designs are derivatives of the
Darrieus windturbine depicted in figure 4. In the
DWT design use is made of curved blades, just as in
the original design. The Neoga adds skew ness of the
blades, whereas the Turby combines a cylindrical
swept area together with blade sweep.
Since Turby is the most deviating design, when
compared tot the original Darrieus design, and since
it has been heavily investigated by the authors, it is
worthwhile examining this particular design
somewhat further.
The three blades of the Turby rotate along a
cylindrical surface. Compared to the classical
Darrieus rotor this has the advantage that a larger
swept area is obtained for the same blade length. A

6 NOVEL WIND TURBINES DEVELOPED FOR

OPERATION ON BUILDINGS

A number of companies have seen the potential

for wind turbine application on top of existing
buildings and have anticipated on the coming market
with the development of dedicated machines.
From the requirements for small windturbines
operating on buildings it is clear that vertical axis
machines have a preference. There are two major
operating principles for such VAWT’s, one based
upon drag (differences) and the other based upon the
application of aerodynamic lift for torque generation.
Three examples of (mainly) drag driven devices
Figure 12 Turby prototype at TU Delft open-air
are shown in figure 10. A disadvantage of a drag research site.
driven device is its fairly low efficiency and high

6
 G.J.W. van Bussel, S.M. Mertens
disadvantage is the addition of struts in the centre
necessary for structural reasons. They will contribute
to the viscous drag of the machine and thus reduce
its efficiency. Furthermore the stress path in the
blades due to centrifugal loads is no longer aligned
with the blade itself.
At this point it should however be noted that the
design TSR of Turby, this is the ratio between
circumferential speed and wind speed is significantly
less than for a classical Darrieus rotor. (TSR = 3 for
Turby where TSR = 5 to 7 for classical Darrieus
rotors).
The blades are furthermore swept. This
complicates the load path through the rotor further,
but is applied because it has a very favourable effect
upon noise production. The combination of low TSR
together with blade sweep makes it possible to
comply with the noise levels allowable in the built
environment. More details regarding the
development and the design of Turby can be found
in van Bussel et al (2004).
A final example of a small windturbine designed
for application on buildings is shown in figure 13.
Figure 13 Windwall mounted on the windward edge of
the HTM building (Den Haag NL)
This Windwall is a windturbine designed for
operation on the windward edge of a building. It has
the appearance of a large, classical style lawn
mower. One might think that it is operating
according to the Darrieus principle just like Turby
but mounted on a horizontal axis.
A closer look to the geometry of the rotor
however reveals that this machine will not operate
according to the lift driven VAWT principle, since
the chord of the blade is far too large. Hence it will
probably operate according to a hybrid combination
of lift and drag forces, depending upon the azimuthal
position of the blade under consideration. Although
7
the machine has a horizontal axis, it will normally
not been categorised as a HAWT, since HAWT’s
operate with their axis parallel to the oncoming
wind, and evidently Windwall operates as a
crosswind turbine, just as VAWT’s. So also in this
sense it might be categorised as a hybrid machine.
Evidently this Windwall only takes advantage of
wind coming from directions more or less
perpendicular to the façade above which it mounted.
This will also reduce its efficiency in wind climates
with a wider range of occurring wind directions.
FUTURE COMBINATIONS OF WIND
TURBINES AND BUILDINGS
Having noticed the fact that dedicated windturbines
for application on buildings have entered the market,
it is now possible for architects to explore the
abilities of integrating windturbines into new
designs. The mutual interference of windturbines and
buildings should however been assessed carefully, in
order to end up with successful results.
In his Ph D thesis Mertens (2005) has facilitated
such assessment of future wind turbine-building
combinations significantly by addressing the fluid
dynamic aspects several possibilities of combining
wind turbines and buildings.
Figure 14: Conceptual design of the freedom tower showing
the wind power station lay out. Courtesy: Skidmore, Owings
& Merrill LLP,New York, USA..
One of the most appealing proposals is evidently
the realisation of a wind power station in the top
section of the new Freedom Tower, to be realised at
the World Trade Centre site in central Manhattan in
 The Fourth European & African Conference on Wind Engineering, Paper #210
New York City. When the first designs were
disclosed it became clear that a cluster of several
windturbines are thought to be located on the top 50
meters of the tower. In figure 14 the design of the
freedom tower is shown.
a: Original stacking diagram for the Freedom tower
using HAWT’s.
b: Alternative stacking using Turby VAWT’s.
Figure 15: Comparison of HAWT and VAWT wind
power station for the Freedom Tower.
Courtesy: BattleMcCarthy London, UK. (top figure)
BattleMcCarty a UK based company, was
responsible for a first presentation of the lay out of
the wind power station. Figure 15 shows the
conceptual design they proposed. It is evident that
this set up was not given a thorough assessment from
the point of view of aerodynamics. Also from the
structural point of view it a very complicated
“solution” was presented by the company, involving
a mesh of structures, on which more or less standard
wind turbine towers equipped with HAWT’s are
placed. Considering the very complex behaviour of
the wind on top of such large building, and moreover
realising that the presence of the two large circular
columns forming the structural heart of the building
has an important negative effect upon the
performance and the loads of such HAWT’s, it was
realised that also for the Freedom Tower wind
project VAWT’s should be preferred. In response to
a RFQ, submitted in March 2004 by the World Trace
8
Centre Properties LLC, it was therefore proposed to
develop a set up including a number of Turby-type
of windturbines instead.
 CONCLUSIONS
The built environment offers a new and challenging
opportunity for generating green electricity from the
wind. In contrast to sites where large scale
production units using (multi)megawatt horizontal
axis windturbines are operating in wind farm
clusters, the built environment requires a totally
different design. The three bladed horizontal axis
design solution for large windturbines operating in
rural areas is not an obvious choice for the built
environment, where wind is highly turbulent.
For such urban locations much smaller vertical
axis windturbines provide good solution. The
standard Darrieus windturbine is not very well
suited, since it is too noisy. A Savonius rotor has the
disadvantage of a fairly low power coefficient. By
modification of the original Darrieus design, a.o. by
reducing the design tip speed ratio (TSR) and by
applying blade sweep, noise production can be
minimised. Thus new concepts have evolved which
are much better equipped for application on
(existing) buildings. Typical dimensions are around
10 to 20% of the characteristic building height.
The technical potential of small windturbines on
buildings is enormous. From estimates made for the
EU and USA market the world potential for such
units goes into the millions. Evidently this market
will only be opened when the electricity production
price is sufficiently low, which is not yet the case.
But the advantage of such decentralised units is that
they have to produce against a cost price equal or
lower than the consumer’s price, which can be five
times higher than the (centralised) electricity
production price. Providing the Freedom Tower in
central New York with a wind power station, should
also been assessed the point of view of “local
economics”. The initial technical design solution for
the Freedom Tower however, using standard small
horizontal axis wind turbines, is not suitable for the
wind climate and the building restrictions. With the
presently proposed vertical axis wind turbines a
much better technical end economical solution can
be achieved.
 G.J.W. van Bussel, S.M. Mertens
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