FR2966988A1 - Power plant for generating electric energy from e.g. wind energy to supply electric energy to portable telephone, has photovoltaic and/or thermoelectric units mounted above wind turbine such that flow of air mixed by turbine cools units - Google Patents

Abstract

The power plant has a wind turbine (13) rotatably mounted on a support frame around a vertical axis of rotation. Photovoltaic units (11) and/or thermoelectric units (12) are mounted on the support frame. An electronic management board (15) manages electric energy produced by the wind turbine and the photovoltaic and/or thermoelectric units. The photovoltaic units and/or thermoelectric units are mounted above the wind turbine such that flow of air mixed by the wind turbine cools the photovoltaic and/or thermoelectric units via the top.

Description

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The present invention is in the field of the production of electrical energy from renewable energies. It relates more particularly to an energy plant comprising a plurality of means capable of generating electrical energy from renewable energies such as wind and sun. In the field of the invention, there are many devices, including: - wind turbines to produce electrical energy from the wind; photovoltaic cells for producing electrical energy from solar rays; thermopiles and Peltier modules, more generally called thermoelectric means, for producing electrical energy from a difference in temperature (Peltier-Seebeck effect); and kinetic or piezoelectric generators for generating electrical energy from vibrations or mechanical motions. These devices generally operate separately, each producing electrical energy independently of the others. It sometimes happens that some of these devices are associated on the same support to produce electrical energy, one of the devices being arranged on the support so as to improve the performance of at least one of the other devices. For example, the device described in WO 00/05769 comprises both thermoelectric means and photovoltaic means, and wherein the thermoelectric means generate electricity from the heat produced by the photovoltaic means. Thus, the thermoelectric means contribute not only to producing electricity complementary to that produced by

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photovoltaic means but also to increase the efficiency of the photovoltaic cells by dissipating the heat produced by the latter. An object of the invention is to propose another type of power plant comprising a plurality of devices producing electrical energy from renewable energies, a part of them cooperating to increase the overall efficiency of the plant.

Another object of the invention is to provide a power plant with a small footprint so as to easily transport and a low manufacturing cost. For this purpose, the present invention relates to an energy plant capable of generating electrical energy comprising: a support frame; a wind turbine rotatably mounted on said support frame about a substantially vertical axis of rotation; characterized in that it further comprises - photovoltaic means and / or thermoelectric means mounted on said support frame, and means for managing the electrical energy produced by said wind turbine and said photovoltaic means and / or said means thermoelectric means, said photovoltaic means and / or said thermoelectric means being mounted above said wind turbine so that the air flow stirred by the wind turbine 30 cools said photovoltaic means and / or said thermoelectric means from below. Thus, according to the invention, the wind turbine cooperates with the photovoltaic means and / or the thermoelectric means to cool them and improve their efficiency and their lifetime.

The photovoltaic means comprise a plurality of photovoltaic cells mounted on a preferably rigid plate for their assembly to the support frame.

Advantageously, the power plant comprises both photovoltaic means and thermoelectric means, said thermoelectric means being disposed under said photovoltaic means along a substantially vertical axis.

According to a first embodiment, the thermoelectric means are arranged at a distance from said photovoltaic means along the substantially vertical axis so as to allow the passage of air stirred by the wind turbine under said photovoltaic means.

Spacer means are provided to maintain a predetermined distance between the photovoltaic means and the thermoelectric means and allow the passage of a blade of air from the particular wind turbine between them.

In this embodiment, an opening is provided in said photovoltaic means to allow the passage of solar rays to the thermoelectric means. Advantageously, a converging lens is disposed at least above the opening to focus the solar rays passing through the opening on the thermoelectric means. In the absence of opening in the photovoltaic means, said photovoltaic means and the thermoelectric means may be shifted transversely relative to each other so that these two means can receive solar rays. According to a second embodiment, the thermoelectric means are in contact with the photovoltaic means, the thermoelectric means being suitable

4 to produce electrical energy from the heat of the photovoltaic means. In both embodiments, the thermoelectric means comprise at least one thermopile comprising an upper plate serving as heat collector and a lower plate, said thermopile being able to generate electrical energy from the temperature difference between said plate upper and said lower plate.

When the thermoelectric means comprise a plurality of thermopiles, they are advantageously arranged in a plane transverse to said substantially vertical axis and a heat collector element opaque to infrared rays, called collector element, is disposed above said plurality of thermopiles to capture the rays. solar through the opening of the photovoltaic means, transform the solar radiation captured in thermal energy and transmit at least a portion of this thermal energy thermopiles. In addition, the thermoelectric means advantageously comprise a heat sink element, called dissipator element, in contact, by its upper face, with the lower plate of the thermopiles and, at least its lower face, with the air stirred by the wind turbine. to cool said bottom plate and improve the efficiency of the thermopiles. According to a particular embodiment, a second layer of insulating material is disposed between the collector element and the dissipator element, windows being formed in said second layer of insulating material to receive the thermopiles and transmit heat from the collector element to the upper plate of the thermopiles. This second layer of insulating material makes it possible in particular to eliminate the thermal bridges between the collector element and the dissipating element of the thermoelectric means. According to a particular embodiment, the wind turbine comprises an axial rod extending along said axis of rotation, at least two blades extending radially from said axial rod, and means for generating electrical energy for producing electrical energy from the rotational movement of said axial rod.

According to a particular embodiment, the power plant further comprises at least one piezoelectric element capable of generating electrical energy when the power plant is subjected to vibrations and / or mechanical movements.

According to a preferred embodiment, the axial shaft of the wind turbine is equipped with a cam adapted to set in motion said piezoelectric element when said axial rod is in rotation, said piezoelectric element then forming said means of electrical generation of the wind turbine. . In this embodiment, the wind turbine cooperates with the piezoelectric element to transform the kinetic energy of the wind turbine into electrical energy. Finally, the various means of the plant are dimensioned so that it is portable, its height preferably being between 10 and 50 centimeters.

The invention will be better understood, and other objects, details, features and advantages will become more clearly apparent from the following detailed explanatory description, with reference to the accompanying drawings, which show: FIG. a perspective view of an electric power plant according to the invention;

Figure 2 is a side view of the central unit of Figure 1; - Figure 3, an exploded perspective view of the constituent means of the power plant of Figure 1; - Figure 4, a side view of the constituent elements of the central of Figure 3; FIG. 5, a view showing, with the exception of the support frame, the arrangement of the elements of FIG. 4 between them; - Figure 6, a detail D of the view of Figure 5; - Figure 7, an electrical diagram of the power plant of Figure 1; and Figure 8 is a perspective view of a second power plant according to the invention; FIG. 9, a view illustrating the arrangement of the constituent elements of the central unit of FIG. 8.

According to the invention, there is provided an energy plant employing a plurality of renewable energy sources for producing electrical energy. In the embodiment illustrated in FIGS. 1 to 7, the power plant comprises photovoltaic means, thermoelectric means, a wind turbine and piezoelectric means for producing electrical energy, these means cooperating together, at least for a part of them, to improve the overall efficiency of the plant. With reference to FIGS. 1 to 6, the power plant comprises a support frame 10 on which are mounted, along a vertical axis A and from top to bottom, photovoltaic means 11, thermoelectric means 12, a wind turbine 13, means piezoelectric 14 and 35 an electronic card 15 for managing the energy produced by these different energy sources.

The support frame 10 more particularly comprises a tubular base 100 through which the support frame is intended to rest on a substantially flat horizontal surface. The piezoelectric means 14 and the electronic card 15 of energy management are arranged inside this base. The base 100 essentially comprises a substantially cylindrical wall 100a and a bottom wall 100b and is closed by a cover 100c.

The support frame 10 further comprises at least one vertical upright 101 assembled, at its lower end, to the outer peripheral surface of the cylindrical wall 100a, and, at its upper end, to the outer peripheral surface of a support ring, called upper ring 102, intended to carry in particular the photovoltaic means and the thermoelectric means. In the figures presented, the support frame comprises four vertical uprights 101 arranged at regular angular intervals to support the upper ring 102. The photovoltaic means 11 and the thermoelectric means 12 are mounted in the upper part of the support frame 10. The means photovoltaic cells 11 comprise a plurality of photovoltaic cells arranged on a flexible or rigid disk 110 according to the technology used. These two means are mounted on the top of the support frame to receive the sun's rays. The disk 110 of photovoltaic cells is advantageously equipped on the top of a transparent protective disk 16 to protect the cells from bad weather. The thermoelectric means comprise one or more thermopiles 121 capable of generating electrical energy from a difference in temperature.

Each thermopile has an upper plate for collecting heat and a lower plate,

8 the electrical energy being produced from the temperature difference between the upper plate and the lower plate. The thermoelectric means 12 being disposed under the disk 110 of photovoltaic cells, an opening 111 is formed in the latter so that solar rays can reach the thermoelectric means 12. The thermoelectric means 12 comprise a collector element 122 of heat, being in the form of a disk, adapted to receive the sun rays passing through the opening 111. The collector element, black in color, is in thermal and mechanical contact with the upper plate of the thermopiles. It captures the solar rays passing through the opening 111, transforms them into thermal energy and transmits at least a portion of this thermal energy to the upper plate of the thermopiles. The collector element 122 is placed under the disk 110 of photovoltaic cells but at a distance from it so that there is an air flow under the disk of photovoltaic cells. The collector element 122 is for example made of aluminum or copper painted black. To focus the solar rays passing through the opening 111 on the thermoelectric means and more particularly on the collector element 122, a convergent lens 17 is advantageously provided on the protection disk 16 or directly on the disk 110 of photovoltaic cells at 111. To avoid that the photovoltaic cells are possibly heated by the collector element 122, a disc 18 of insulating material is advantageously disposed on the upper face of the collector element. This disc is provided at its center with an opening 180 in the extension of the opening

9 111 so that the solar rays passing through the opening 111 reach the collector element 122. The thermopiles 121 are disposed under the collector element 122, inside windows 124 formed in a layer 123, disc-shaped, thermally insulating material. The disk 123 is disposed between the collector element 122 and a heat sink element 125. The latter is in thermal contact by its upper face with the lower plate of the thermopiles and by its lower face with the air stirred by the wind turbine 13 disposed below. The role of the disk 123 is notably to eliminate the thermal bridges between the collector element 122 and the dissipator element 125. The windows 124 formed in this disk serve as housing for the thermopiles 121. According to a preferred embodiment, the dissipator element 125 comprises on its underside grooves 126 or teeth 127 extending downwards to increase the heat exchange surface with the air stirred by the wind turbine. The assembly of the elements of the photovoltaic means 11 and the thermoelectric means 12 on the upper ring 102 is shown in FIGS. 5 and 6.

The upper ring 102 has, on its cylindrical inner wall, a shoulder 103 on which the disk 110 of photovoltaic cells and the disk 16 of protection rest. Fastening lugs 104 extending radially inwardly from the shoulder 103, away from the upper wall of the shoulder 103, are provided for the assembly of the insulating disk 18 and the thermoelectric means 12. this embodiment, four fastening lugs 104 angularly offset by 90 ° are provided for fixing the dissipating element 125. They are arranged to

10 near the upper end of the uprights 101, on the other side of the cylindrical wall of the upper ring 102. The insulating disc 18, the collector element 122, the insulating disc 123 and the dissipating element 125 are arranged under the fixing lugs 104. The dissipating element 125 is attached by screws 105 to the fixing lugs 104 and the elements 18, 122 and 124 are pressed against the underside of the fixing lugs by the dissipating element 125. The diameter elements 18, 122 and 124 is smaller than that of the dissipating element 125 to allow the passage of the screws 105. Once assembled, the elements 16, 110, 18, 122, 123 and 125 are arranged inside the passage internal support ring 102. A space 19 is thus defined between the disk 110 of photovoltaic cells and the insulating disc 18. Since the diameter of the dissipating element 125 is smaller than the inside diameter of the upper ring 102, air blown by the wind turbine 13 placed beneath the dissipating element flows under the disk 110 of photovoltaic cells in space. 19. The disk 110 of photovoltaic cells and the protection disk 116 are fixed, for example by gluing, on the shoulder 103 once the thermoelectric means 12 and the insulating disc 18 are in place. The wind turbine 13 is disposed under the dissipator element 125. It comprises an axial rod 130 extending along the vertical axis A, corresponding to the axis of rotation of the wind turbine, at least two blades 131 ' extending radially from the axial rod, and means for generating electrical energy for producing electrical energy from the rotational movement of the axial rod and which will be described more

11 far away. In the presence of wind, the rod and the blades rotate around the axis A. In the upper part, the rod 130 is hollow and adapted to receive a pad 128 of the dissipating element 125 for mounting thereto. The cylindrical stud is disposed in the center of the dissipating element. It extends downwards along the axis A and serves as a bearing on the upper part of the rod 130. In the lower part, the rod 130 is assembled to the cover 100c of the base with the aid of another bearing. 133, for example a ball bearing, and extends into the base 100. The wind turbine 13 cooperates with piezoelectric elements 140 and 141 to generate electrical energy from the rotational movement of the rod 130. The piezoelectric elements 14 form the means for generating electrical energy from the wind turbine. In the absence of rotation of the wind turbine, they are also able to generate electrical energy when the plant is subjected to mechanical movements. They are arranged in the base 100, under the lid 100c. In the illustrated embodiment, the piezoelectric elements 140 and 141 are arranged symmetrically with respect to the axis A.

The piezoelectric elements 140 and 141 conventionally comprise a beam 142 able to deform and having a free end, the other end being assembled to a support member 143. This support element is fixed to the bottom wall 100b of the base . The stem 130 of the wind turbine is provided at its lower end with a cam 132 having a lower end beveled on both sides to deform the beam of the piezoelectric elements when the rod 130 is rotating. When the cam 132 rotates around

12 axis A, each bevel progressively deforms the beam of the piezoelectric element vis-a-vis. Alternatively, the plant may comprise, in addition to piezoelectric elements or in their place, a dynamo mounted on the axial shaft of the wind turbine to produce electrical energy from the rotational movement of the wind turbine. The plant also includes an electronic card designed to manage the energy produced by the various power sources of the plant. The energy produced is stored in a battery 151. The card is connected to the disk 110 of photovoltaic cells and the thermopiles 121 by wires (not shown) passing through the vertical uprights 101 hollow. Wires (not shown) are also provided for connecting the piezoelectric elements to the card 15. The card 15 is mounted on the bottom wall 100b of the base between the support elements 143 of the piezoelectric elements 140 and 141. One or more connectors 152 are mounted on the cylindrical wall 100a to connect to the power station electrical appliances to recharge. An electrical diagram of the card 15 is shown in FIG. 7. The card comprises three inputs connected respectively to the photovoltaic means, the thermopiles and the piezoelectric elements. Each of these inputs is connected, via a regulator 153 operating according to the MPPT (for Maximal Power Point Tracker in English) technology, to a super-capacitor 154. The super-capacitor has the advantage of charging faster than a battery. and to be able to store the available energy during the peaks of production of the energy source to which it is connected. The purpose of the regulator 153 is to follow the maximum power point of the energy source to which it is connected and to extract the maximum of

13 regardless of the loaded or unloaded state of the super-capacity. It functions as a power converter that converts the output voltage of the power source to the voltage of the super-capacity while keeping the maximum power delivered. The super-capacitors 154, through diodes 155, feed a battery charger 154 connected to the battery 151. The supercharged super-capacity discharges into the battery 151 through the charger 154 which manages the charging of the battery. Continuous-DC converters 157 are provided at the output for converting the voltage delivered by the battery into a plurality of desired voltages, for example 3.3 volts and 5 volts. The outputs of the converters 157 are connected to the output connectors 152 of the control unit. The output connector (s) 152 are mounted on the cylindrical wall 100a of the base. Other modules can be added to this card, for example a standard wireless communication module (Bluetooth, GPRS +, Wifi, Miwi) to communicate with electrical devices, for example sensors, connected to the central for their power supply. This communication module also makes it possible to remotely configure the intelligence contained in this card. A second embodiment is illustrated in FIGS. 8 and 9. The power station is referenced 2. The elements which are identical to those of the power station 1 bear the same references as in FIGS. 1 to 7. In this embodiment, the collector element 122 of the thermoelectric means is directly in mechanical and thermal contact with the underside of the disk 210 of photovoltaic cells. There is no space 19. The disc 210 no longer has an opening at its center. Thermoelectric means are here used to recover heat from cells

14 photovoltaics to cool them and improve their performance. The plant no longer has an insulating layer 18 or a protective disk 16. The convergent lens 17 is also replaced by a Fresnel lens 217 covering the entire disk 210 of photovoltaic cells to concentrate the solar rays over the entire In this embodiment, only the thermoelectric means benefit from the mixing of the air by the wind turbine.

For this embodiment, the upper ring 202 is modified. It comprises, for fixing the photovoltaic means and the thermoelectric means, fastening lugs 204 extending radially inwards from the inner cylindrical wall of the support ring 202. The lens and the disk 210 of photovoltaic cells are located above the fastening tabs 204. The dissipating element 125 is disposed under the fastening tabs 204 and fixed to said tabs by fixing screws 205. The collector element 122 and the insulating disc 123 are arranged between the disc 210 and the dissipating element 125. In this embodiment, the thermoelectric means cool the photovoltaic cells to improve their efficiency and the dissipating element, in thermal contact with the air stirred by the wind turbine, contributes to reducing the thermal resistance of the lower plate of the thermopiles and to increase the energy recovered by the thermopiles. Preferably, in the two embodiments shown in Figures 1 to 9, the elements are sized and arranged so that the height of the plant is between 10 and 50 centimeters, and this to obtain a portable power plant. The renewable energy sources of the plant are complementary in that they cooperate with each other to improve overall efficiency.

15 of the plant. They are also complementary in that they produce electrical energy at different times (especially depending on the periods of sunshine and the presence or absence of wind). This provides a relatively high average available energy. The wind / piezoelectric combination also makes it possible to use only one electrical converter (piezoelectric element) which is set in motion by the wind turbine shaft, by the vibrations of the power station, or by both. The plant of the invention can be used to power many devices, for example in situ monitoring or measuring devices using sensors or mobile devices such as mobile phones, laptops, game consoles geographical location, Although the invention has been described in connection with various particular embodiments, it is obvious that it is not limited thereto and that it comprises all the technical equivalents of the means described and their combinations if these fall within the scope of the invention.

Claims (12)

REVENDICATIONS1. Energy plant capable of generating electrical energy comprising: - a support frame (10); - A wind turbine (13) rotatably mounted on said support frame about a vertical axis of rotation (A); characterized in that it further comprises - photovoltaic means (11) and / or thermoelectric means (12) mounted on said support frame, and - means (15) for managing the electrical energy produced by said wind turbine and said photovoltaic means and / or said thermoelectric means, said photovoltaic means (11) and / or said thermoelectric means (12) being mounted above said wind turbine so that the air flow stirred by the wind turbine cools from below said photovoltaic means and / or said thermoelectric means. 2. Power station according to claim 1, characterized in that it comprises photovoltaic means (11) and thermoelectric means (12), said thermoelectric means being disposed under said photovoltaic means along a substantially vertical axis (A). 3. Power station according to claim 2, characterized in that the thermoelectric means are disposed at a distance from said photovoltaic means along said substantially vertical axis so as to allow the passage of air stirred by the wind turbine under said photovoltaic means. 4. Power plant according to claim 3, characterized in that an opening (111) is formed in said photovoltaic means for the passage of solar rays to said thermoelectric means. 5. Power station according to claim 2, characterized in that the thermoelectric means are in mechanical and thermal contact with the photovoltaic means, the thermoelectric means being able to produce electrical energy from the heat of the photovoltaic means. 6. Plant according to claim 4 or 5, characterized in that the thermoelectric means comprise at least one thermopile (121) comprising an upper plate and a lower plate, said thermopile being able to generate electrical energy from the difference temperature between said upper plate and said lower plate. 7. Plant according to claim 6, characterized in that the thermoelectric means (12) comprise a plurality of thermopiles (121) disposed in a plane transverse to said substantially vertical axis (A) and a heat sink element opaque to infrared rays, called a collector element (122) disposed above said plurality of thermopiles for sensing sunlight passing through said aperture (111), transforming the captured solar rays into heat energy and transmitting at least a portion of said thermal energy to the thermopiles. 8. Plant according to claim 6 or 7, characterized in that the thermoelectric means (12) further comprises a heat sink element, called dissipator element (125), in contact, by its upper face 18, with the lower plate of thermopiles and, at least its underside, with the air stirred by the wind turbine. 9. Power station according to claim 8, characterized in that a layer (123) of insulating material is disposed between the collector element (122) and the dissipating element (125), windows (124) being formed in said layer of insulating material for receiving the thermopiles and transmitting heat from the collector element to the upper plate of the thermopiles. 10. Power station according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the wind turbine (13) comprises an axial rod (130) extending along said axis of rotation (A), at least two blades (131). extending radially from said axial rod, and means for generating electrical energy (14) from the rotational movement of the axial rod. 11. Power station according to claim 10, characterized in that it further comprises at least one piezoelectric element (14) capable of generating electrical energy when the power plant is subjected to mechanical movements. 12. Power station according to claim 11, characterized in that the axial shaft (130) of the wind turbine is equipped with a cam (132) adapted to set in motion said piezoelectric element (14) when said axial rod is rotated. said piezoelectric element forming said wind turbine electrical generating means.