Its complicated,AE-NMidlands wrote: ↑Sat Jul 29, 2023 10:01 pm... so deliberately not generating as much as it could, i.e. as much as the wind through the swept area "contains"? To not over-drive the generator and downstream electrical stuff?Joeboy wrote: ↑Sat Jul 29, 2023 9:42 pmHigher blade angle more drag. Slows it down. Think plane flaps.AE-NMidlands wrote: ↑Sat Jul 29, 2023 9:41 pm Can someone explain (in simple terms please) the significance of blade angle?
I could be very wrong, but I'm guessing it's all relative to windspeed so about zero means full exploitation, and bigger blade angles in higher winds are "spilling the wind" - in a sailing ship analogy - to avoid over-driving the generator?

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/a ... 861500155X
But the conclusion is,
For a given wind velocity, there is an optimum pitch angle where the power generated by the turbine is maximum. This optimum angle depends on the wind velocity. It is found to be 5° for Vin = 7 m/s, ϕ ~ 20° for Vin = 15.1 m/s and ϕ ~ 30° for Vin = 25.1 m/s. Operating the turbine at other angles would result in lower power. At angles deviated from the optimum angle, the performance of the turbine would deteriorate and eventually shut off. It has been seen that at these pitch angles, the angle of attack is close to the stall angle and thus experiences highest lift to drag force ratio.