Mechanics and Mechanical Engineering Vol. 22, No. 2 (2018) 437–445 c ⃝ Lodz University of Technology Location-Optimized Aerodynamic Rotor Design of Small Wind Turbines and Lightweight Implementation Using Additive Hybrid Material Daniel Lehser-Pfeffermann Tobias H¨ afele Frank U. R¨ uckert J¨ urgen Griebsch University of Applied Sciences Saarbr¨ ucken Saarbr¨ ucken, Germany daniel.pfeffermann@htwsaar.de Tobias M¨ uller University of Applied Sciences W¨ urzburg-Schweinfurt Schweinfurt, Germany tobias.mueller@fhws.de Franz Joos Helmut-Schmidt-Universit¨at,Universit¨atderBundeswehr Hamburg, Germany joos@hsu-hh.de Received (23 June 2018) Revised (19 July 2018) Accepted (13 August 2018) Wind power plays a crucial role in supplying cities with renewable energy. Combined with short transport routes, it is essential to establish site-specific small wind turbines in the urban environment. An increasing interest in small, decentralized, vertical-axis wind turbines (VAWT) can be observed here. However, concepts with low visual and auditory effects and economic efficiencies are largely limited. The project part described in this paper enables a specially developed design software tool of rotor geometries opti- mized for such boundary conditions. By using fiber-reinforced structures in combination with selective laser sintering, it is theoretically possible to economically produce even the smallest quantities of these geometries for a typical service life of wind turbines. The results presented and discussed in this work can serve as a basis for a subsequent feasibility study. Keywords : small wind turbine, vertical axis, VAWT, additive manufacturing, hybrid design, laser sintering technology, fiber-reinforced composites (FRP).