Gusto Energy Ltd is a product development and manufacturing company with a focus on renewable energy. Gusto's design philosophy is to embrace all facets of the product design process to attain a comprehensive and detailed technical understanding of the inter-related issues of small wind turbine design. Accordingly Gusto has developed all its product components from the bottom up, including the permanent magnet alternators. All manufacturing operations are therefore completely controlled in-house with very little reliance on external suppliers. Small wind turbines are deceptively complicated, but purpose designed components enable proper matching of electrical and mechanical load carrying capabilities from one component to another, resulting in a product that delivers reliability and high performance.
Gusto Energy Ltd was borne out of a wind tunnel testing business that was founded by Duncan McMillan in the early 90's following the completion of post-graduate studies in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Auckland.
The Products With the aid of microcontroller based data acquisition systems all Gusto products are subject to lengthy and thorough field tests before market release. Much of Gusto's electronic monitoring equipment was custom built for product optimisation. The Gusto 2.0 kW wind turbine is designed to withstand the rigorous wind environment found in NZ, where high mean windspeeds and often rough surrounding terrain combine to severely test the design integrity of small wind turbines. Only products that have been developed in such environments can be expected to withstand them.
A 2.0 kW wind turbine will meet substantial energy requirements in a good wind resource and is therefore ideally suited to applications where more energy from the wind is desired compared to other sources of renewable generation. The 2.0 kW machine will perform equally well in network-connect installations and Remote Area Power Systems (RAPS).
The Gusto core design features an alternator configuration that enables the wind turbine to run at relatively low speeds, resulting in smooth quiet operation. The permanent magnet alternator produces 3-phase AC at high voltage - this means the wind turbine can be located a long distance away from the batteries with minimal voltage drop, resulting in more energy for your batteries. All Gusto wind turbines can be turned off - they can be manually furled out of the wind and then electrically braked to bring the rotor to a standstill, effectively shutting down the machine.
Gusto wind turbines use fabricated metal blades, which are stiff and maintenance free. There is no leading edge tape required, and no chance of the blades striking the pole. All Gusto exposed metallic components are fully corrosion protected, many of them hot-dip galvanised.
Gusto has a formal Quality Control process where numerous checks are conducted on componentry during the manufacturing process. This ensures all wind turbines have been manufactured to the highest standards and will perform to expectation.