Small Wind Turbines with rated power below 100 kW can be found in multiple applications today. In spite of the forecasts, global Small Wind Turbine industry has not reached the development state of the conventional wind industry. A mayor factor which keeps this industry from further growth is the low efficiency of Small Wind Turbines. During the last years important efforts towards improvements in efficiency have been done, specially with vertical axis wind turbines. Another field for improvement in Small Wind Turbines is their control strategies. Particular characteristics of small wind turbines make control and optimal maximum power point tracking difficult. In this context, this thesis presents a new maximum power point tracking algorithm. This new algorithm is characterized by its ability to adapt to changes in the wind turbine, improving its energy efficiency. Likewise, a new inverter control strategy with fast dynamic response and insensitive to grid frequency variation is presented. Furthermore, a Small Wind Turbine simulation platform and an experimental test bench have been developed in this thesis to validate the designed control algorithms. In order to improve the simulation of Small Wind Turbine power conversion stages, two new simulation techniques have been proposed within the thesis. The results have been used to validate the most important features of the designed control algorithms.