Obstacle plates of various designs were used in previous studies to enhance the performance of the Savonius rotor operating in free wind conditions. The present work is aimed to investigate an obstacle plate upstream wind turbine installed inside a duct. Installing wind turbines in a through-building channel provides a great opportunity for wind speed augmentation. In this case, the obstacle plate is expected to decrease the negative effect on the wind turbine operation. On the contrary, the net driving force can be enhanced by reducing the reverse force on the convex blade. Furthermore, the static torque which is a measure of the rotor starting ability can be improved. The rotor performance is numerically and experimentally investigated in free wind conditions and inside the duct with and without obstacle plates. The results showed a higher power coefficient for the ducted rotor with CPmax = 0.188 as compared to the free wind rotor of CPmax = 0.165. Moreover, introducing obstacle plates upstream of the rotor with an angle of 35⁰ to the main flow direction increases the rotor performance, with CPmax = 0.216. The increase in rotor power coefficient records 15% and 31% as compared to the rotor without obstacle plate and rotor in free wind conditions, respectively. The static torque in the case of obstacle plates of α=35⁰ has positive values at all rotor orientations which ensures good starting ability of the present Savonius rotor operation.