Small turbines could blow back into fashion across the U.S.

[jpak]

http://www.winonadailynews.com/articles/2006/02/12/news/00lead.txt

When Dick Fischer decided to build a 20-kilowatt wind turbine on his farm outside Lewiston, his neighbors and friends told him he was crazy.

It’ll fall over, they said. It’ll break. You’ll lose money. It’s noisy. There aren’t any other turbines around, so there must be something wrong with them.

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fixed link????

[BlueEyedSon]

1. bad link?

[eppur_se_muova]

2. Link works now, thanks for the post. nt

[hunter]

3. Has anyone here tried it?

Such as these:

http://www.realgoods.com/renew/shop/product.cfm/dp/1100/sd/1104/ts/3016277



I think where I live solar gets me more watts for my dollar.

[skids]

4. Prices are too high.

...unless you live in a really windy area and can expect a high load factor, the prices for these things are ridiculous. They really need to get themselves up to mass production and past these semi-custom jobs. A wind turbine should technically cost only about as much as, well let's say a cordless leaf blower + a box fan + a few CPU power supplies. By all rights they should be under $0.50/Wp.

[midnight armadillo]

5. They're a little more complex than that

A small scale turbine needs very lightweight blades (carbon fiber is great) to generate loads in low winds, change the pitch of the blades to handle high wind loads, and feather them in very high winds to prevent damage. Then it has to run very reliably in a completely exposed environment in all weather, AND reliably produce a regulated DC voltage output. They're somewhat complex, very highly engineered devices, so they're pricey in small quantities.

What one really needs is a very tall tower to get away from ground turbulence and take advantage of sustained winds at ~75 feet or so. The problem is that a tall tower often costs as much as the turbine itself, complicates maintenance, and you need enough property to hold the whole thing so if it falls over it doesn't take out the neighbor's house.

I think the small turbines are very cool, esp. since they produce more in winter than in summer (seasonal winds) which is the opposite of solar so they complement each other. However, they're even more site-dependent than solar and are more complex to manage. I'll wager for most people it's more economical to do a larger solar array than do wind + solar.

[skids]

6. That's what an overengineered turbine needs, at least.

Look at the turbine linked in the article -- no blade pitching, the combined yaw and furling mechanism is two armatures with flaps on the end, a spring, and some metal gears. It does integrate battery MPPT in the DC regulator, but once engineered, these devices contain components on about the scale I said -- a few PC power supplies worth (DSP, FETs or IGBTs, caps, coils) You're right in that it's the small quantities that kill the price -- mass manufactured the engineering costs would vaporize on a per-unit basis. Which was my point.

A very cheap mass produced savonius would mitigate the need for a tower -- it wouldn't glean as much power as a roof-mount, but if it were cheaper proportionally to the power lost by not having a tower...

[jpak]

7. Bergey Windpower makes some fine 1 kW turbines

http://www.freebreeze.com/bergey.html

...for ~$3300...

and 7.5 - 10 kW turbines for ~$20K

http://www.earthsolar.com/bergey.htm

There is a house near my parent's home in Maine that has an XL.1 and a 750 W PV array on a tracker.

I've seen it operating on deceptively "unwindy" days...

[skids]

8. That's the issue right there...

Wind should be much, much cheaper than solar, given loading and maintenance drawbacks, in order to compete.

That's $3.30 per peak watt. Solar's $4.25.

[jpak]

9. Yup

California provides rebates for small wind turbines...

http://www.bergey.com/Channels/1A1.htm

$2.10 per watt for the first 0.75 kW

so does Massachusetts...

http://www.renewableenergyaccess.com/rea/market/business/viewstory?id=35931

and New Jersey...

http://www.irecusa.org/articles/static/1/1064869477_1051597266.html

and Delaware...

http://www.awea.org/smallwind/delaware.html

and Minnesota...

http://www.state.mn.us/portal/mn/jsp/content.do?action=faq&category=Wind+Rebate&agency=Commerce

but I don't think these programs are widely publicized...

[htuttle]

10. If I ever find myself stranded on an island with nothing but an old car...

...I imagine I could have a 12V DC wind turbine set up by the end of the day, using nothing but parts from the car. (Don't ask me how I expect to end up stranded on an island with nothing but an old car -- it's just an example...)

Wouldn't be 'optimal', but it would work, and I'd have lights and power for a radio. Wind-driven generators can be as simple or complex as is needed for a given installation.

[skids]

11. I almost wish I owned/worked in a junkyard these days.

There'd be so much fun to be had :-)

[jpak]

12. Back-To-The-Land folks did just that back in '70's

and cobbled together micro-hydro turbines as well...

Some early off-grid folks also kept two sets of batteries in their cars/trucks. They hauled one inside to run DC lights at night...

:)

[jpak]

13. Small wind turbines in action...

http://www.greenenergyohio.org/page.cfm?pageID=102

http://www.awea.org/Graphics_Library/library_info1.htm

http://www.greenenergyohio.org/page.cfm?pageID=884