Use
Savonius turbines are used whenever cost or reliability is much more important than efficiency.
Most anemometers are Savonius turbines for this reason, as efficiency is irrelevant to the application of measuring wind speed. Much larger Savonius turbines have been used to generate electric power on deep-water buoys, which need small amounts of power and get very little maintenance. Design is simplified because, unlike with horizontal axis wind turbines (HAWTs), no pointing mechanism is required to allow for shifting wind direction and the turbine is self-starting. Savonius and other vertical-axis machines are good at pumping water and other high torque, low rpm applications and are not usually connected to electric power grids. They can sometimes have long helical scoops, to give smooth torque.
The most ubiquitous application of the Savonius wind turbine is the Flettner Ventilator, which is commonly seen on the roofs of vans and buses and is used as a cooling device. The ventilator was developed by the German aircraft engineer Anton Flettner in the 1920s. It uses the Savonius wind turbine to drive an extractor fan. The vents are still manufactured in the UK by Flettner Ventilator Limited.
Small Savonius wind turbines are sometimes seen used as advertising signs where the rotation helps to draw attention to the item advertised. They sometimes feature a simple two-frame animation.
Read more about this topic: Savonius Wind Turbine
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