Wind turbines for professional telecommunication applications: the 15 year running of a wind turbine for a microwave relay station in Southern France and subsequent developments

This paper describes the latest developments in small scale wind turbines (1 kW to 30 kW power range), and how they have become a solution-through their reliability and robustness-for the energy supply to extreme remote areas where costs have been exceedingly high and where human intervention is limited. An example is presented of a system belonging to France Telecom which has been running for 15 years and thereby solving considerable financial and logistical problems. Through this, the improvements that have occurred in the technology throughout the lifetime of this installation in the direction of efficiency, simplicity and cost reduction is described.