UAGM Recinto de Gurabo/PREC participated in the Collegiate Wind Competition 2018, where students members of the Juracan Energy Team design a wind turbine and present their results at the American Wind Energy Association WINDPOWER in Chicago, Illinois, from May 8–10.
Project Story
Juracan Energy competed in its second CWC challenge and is composed of mechanical and electrical engineering students along with three faculty mentors. The new version of the team started working on three projects during the summer related to the competition mainly on power electronics and controls of the turbine, generator sizing and assembly and improving the wind tunnel capabilities at the Universidad ana G. Méndez (UAGM) Recinto de Gurabo (formerly Universidad del Turabo). These mini projects were areas that needed improvement from the 2016 CWC participation. During the recruitment of additional team member the island was hit by hurricane Maria impacting the everyday life of most students and faculty, at which point it was not clear if the team was going to work and compete. After a very strong response by interested students in doing the project and recruiting additional students it was decided to go ahead and start working on the project.The team agreed to design a wind turbine that could serve some of the needs created in the aftermath of the hurricane. One of the greater needs is that there are numerous communities that lost power and consequently their water distribution since pumping systems depended on grid power. The design wind turbine could function as a standalone project and provide power to the pumping station and the community. A major consideration for the design is that turbine must be able to resist the impact of wind velocities typical in major hurricanes (> 200mph).
Team Roster
- Álvaro D. García (Team Leader) - Mechanical Engineering
- Javier O. Martínez - Mechanical Engineering
- Juan M. Medina - Mechanical Engineering
- Argeli Ramos - Mechanical Engineering
- William Rodríguez – Mechanical Engineering
- Stephany E. Santana – Mechanical Engineering
- Edgar J. Tabales - Mechanical Engineering
- Edwin J. Torres – Mechanical Engineering
- Ricardo A. Valentín- Mechanical Engineering
- Andrea Valenzuela – Mechanical Engineering
- Xavier Collazo - Electrical Engineering
- Jeffrey Borres - Electrical Engineering
- Harry Bonilla -Mechanical Engineering