Abstract
Energy generation from an instrumented Skystream 3.7 small wind turbine was used to investigate the effect of ambient turbulence levels on wind turbine power output performance. It is widely known that elevated ambient turbulence level results in decreased energy production, especially for large sized wind turbine. However, over the entire wind speed range from cut in to the rated wind speed, the measured energy generation increased as ambient turbulence levels elevated. The impact degree of turbulence levels on power generation was reduced as measured wind speed approached to the rated wind speed of 13m/s.