Abstract
This study works on the efficiency analysis of a pneumatic wind energy system which is composed of a windmill, a continuous variable planetary (CVP) transmission, a flywheel, a clutch, a reciprocating compressor, and an air tank. To make the system operate at its best performance, the subsystems’ characteristic must be fully understood. In this study, we examine the five main subsystems of the pneumatic wind energy system: vertical axis windmill, CVP transmission, flywheel-clutch, reciprocating compressor and controller thoroughly by experiments and analysis. To optimize the performance of the pneumatic wind energy system, there would be some trade-off to the efficiency of subsystems. This study starts with the configuration and the designed operation modes of pneumatic wind energy system. Then, the subsystems are examined individually in sequence. The operation models are established both theoretically and experimentally. This study shows the subsystems operation characteristic for the pneumatic wind energy storage system. We expect to find the optimized performance of the pneumatic wind energy system based on this study in the future.