I didn't intend to comment on this but as I have virtually done so in a post above I might as well do so.
I am sure we have people here with all sorts of abilities, many are not in the least technical people but they are managing to produce something that works. It doesn't surprise me that they avoid electronics at all cost.
Wind power for electrical production has been with us for over a century and until recently nothing has really changed. I started to use electronics for field control on wound field alternators about 30 years ago. I even tried boost converters to get a bit more in low winds by reducing the field requirements about 20 years ago.
The introduction of neo magnets made wound field machines less attractive and when I switched to permanent magnet alternators I soon realised that the potential to increase output ( from zero to not much) in low wind was a real step forward. It does come with a lot of major problems in higher wind speed. As I have never had to depend on wind power ( it's only a hobby) I have tended to look at things from a different angle. If you design a pm alternator to make use of very light winds ( 8mph and below), you pay a very heavy price in higher winds unless you do something clever. To me gaining an amp at 7mph at the cost of halving the output at 20 mph made little sense, but in discussions with others I came to realise that those who live off grid gear their lives to surviving on every bit of power available on the average low wind day and 10Ah then may be more use than a huge output on another day when the batteries are dumping.
Commercial manufacturers have to look at things from the prospects of sales and they go for high rated output and low cost and don't really care if they get nothing below 10mph. That is why many build their own with better results.
I think that the simple schemes devised by Hugh Piggott and developed further by DanB and others have opened a new world for those off grid, especially the bigger machines that give good power in low winds and more than is needed on other days.
It is only those who can use the potentially greater output of these big machines for other purposes that would see any gain from added complexity.
Even those playing with heating alone won't find anything worth collecting below 12 mph so they can ( or should) optimise their windings for high winds and a simple scheme may be good enough.
Coming at it from a hobby point of view I want to get as much as possible in low winds but I can't see any reason to accept results in high winds that are seriously worse than I got in the old days especially when it comes with a big increase in stator loss, heat issues and risk of burn out.
There are also those who are motivated by the electronic issues as a challenge, but many will have no real wind power experience. They will do fine playing with electronic things at low power on the bench but they may face a big challenge making their things work on real machines with the force of nature thrown at it.
For those prepared to accept a challenge there is much to be gained from electronics but few are trained electronic designers and what is needed for wind power is quite a challenge. Basic principles are simple, all the advice in the world on the internet, but no real information that makes the difference between success and failure.
It is grid tie that is forcing the issue towards electronics where the larger outputs in high winds are not wasted as will be the case in most battery systems. That is what will bring the commercial manufacturers to use electronics and there may be a spin off towards the battery charging machines as they will use common technology.
If wind is your only power source and you are not an electronics designer then you probably should look at it from the reliability aspect first and performance second.
There is no reason for electronics not to be reliable when properly designed but it is not for everyone. I have never given any of my circuits except in very basic form as I know that even quite advanced electronic people may never get them to work. They are all analogue and the modern world does it digital.
Digital is fine for those who understand it and can also interface it with power electronics, something that few people seem able to do.
This is why I am not willing to reject ancient technology such as saturable reactors without at least thinking it through although in this case i think it is a dead duck.
Flux
