Does anybody have any energy producing windmills on their land? I am considering purchasing some and was curious If anybody had any insight on them, how much of a reduction in bills you saw, any problems, etc. Thanks

3/19/2008 4:32:53 PM

http://www.pacwind.net/

companies like this make home-use wind generators

i've read good things about them, if you have the cash

and obviously the cool thing about these is that they can put electricity back into the grid when your demand is less than the supply (e.g. windy night), actually moving the kw needle on your meter backward!

3/19/2008 4:47:28 PM

this is the main system that i've read about,

http://www.skystreamenergy.com/skystream/product-info/

and although you can get them a bit cheaper or even build your own, they're generally not going to be cost effective. the simple fact is that there isn't much wind in NC:

3/19/2008 4:49:27 PM

If you haven't already done so, you might want to do a a quick climatology search and take some in situ observations to figure out in the normal wind conditions on your property are adequate for power generation. You want steady winds (gusty is bad) between a maximum and minimum threshold determined by the hardware you're going to use. The configuration of your property is also very important. You want your upstream fetch to be clear of major obstacles and you don't want to be close to large structures like trees and buildings that are going to create a turbulent wake.

3/19/2008 4:51:19 PM

I have a lot of farmland, good quality and flat, which is suitable for a wind generator. I understand trees and hills/mountains can disrupt good wind. The area of the land I have isn't the nation's most ideal place, but it is definitely not the worst, and more than adequate to support our energy usage.

I've already google a few places and checked out some websites and prices. I'm looking for having a wind generator installed for as long as possible, 20 years +, so I can hopefully get my money back out of it.


And wouldn't it be nice if for once the energy company sent ME a check!
(FYI there are limits on that, only pays up to 80MW)

3/19/2008 5:30:01 PM

3/19/2008 5:36:26 PM

^haha gg

3/19/2008 5:50:33 PM

^^^ haha ONLY up to 80MW? thats quite a lot of excess power to be generating at a single household


[Edited on March 19, 2008 at 6:12 PM. Reason : dur]

3/19/2008 5:50:57 PM

does not compute

3/19/2008 6:09:48 PM

For a product similar to what is advertised on the pacwind site above and using 1 min. average 10m wind data from a flat farmland location in southeastern Wake county, I anticipate a single wind generator will produce ~90 watts of power averaged over time. My calculations are based on wind data from the past seven days courtesy of the state climate office (7 day average of 1 minute 10m winds is ~8 mph at the Lake Wheeler econet site).

I'm assuming specification based on the product manual for this generator:

3/19/2008 9:04:54 PM

^is that low or high? I would guess a little low, but my perspective is off. Help me out here

3/19/2008 11:03:17 PM

^ I don't know if it's low or high or anything else. I just took a look at the power produced vs wind speed relationship from the product literature and compared it to wind measurements for what I consider to be a representative NC location that's flat and unobstructed agricultural land. YMMV depending on the exact wind patterns at your intended location and the performance characteristics of any generator you may choose. My feeling is that to generate any significant amout of power, you're going to need a lot of these.

[Edited on March 20, 2008 at 8:39 AM. Reason : typing FTL]

3/20/2008 8:38:13 AM

You might want to talk to someone with the NC Solar Center on campus. Though they have "solar" in their name, they actually work with all types of renewable energy, including wind. http://www.ncsc.ncsu.edu

Also, has anyone noticed that there is a little windmill over by the McKimmon center? How long has that been there?

3/20/2008 10:34:33 AM

It works in concert with the "green" house, that house beside it uses all sorts of renewable and green energy devices as part of some design/demo for people to see.

3/20/2008 11:27:19 AM

you'd be better off with southerly angled solar cells and a solar water heater

3/20/2008 11:41:22 AM

^ a good suggestion

3/20/2008 1:54:09 PM

^^ thanks, I've also considered that as an option too

3/20/2008 2:25:57 PM

NC still has the ridge laws which would prevent you from putting windmills in areas of the Appalachians where they would be practical. Unless you live somewhere very close to the coast, I wouldn't advise you to waste your time even doing a wind study.

[Edited on March 21, 2008 at 4:33 PM. Reason : the ridge law is still kind of shady about how it applies to windmills]

3/21/2008 4:28:05 PM

3/21/2008 9:53:54 PM

http://www.goldenwindfarm.com

3/23/2008 7:32:05 PM

^

3/23/2008 9:03:42 PM

^^^^

it's not a problem for me. The land i'm referring to is not actually in North Carolina.

3/24/2008 8:29:12 AM

not really the same since you all were talking about small scale setups, but my company got this job secured recently, thought i might share. seems pretty cool.

Quote :

" ...After four-and-a-half years of intense development work, Fluor signed the engineering, procurement and construction contract and received full Notice to Proceed to design and construct the Greater Gabbard Offshore Wind Farm – the largest project of its kind in the world. The EPC contract is valued at approximately $1.8 billion. The project will be built for Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) approximately 25 kilometers off the Suffolk coast of the United Kingdom and will provide carbon neutral, renewable electricity for more than 415,000 homes, equivalent to the approximate domestic demand of Suffolk. Quick Facts * At 500 megawatts (140 x 3.6 MW turbines), Greater Gabbard will be the world's largest offshore wind farm. ..."

[Edited on May 16, 2008 at 1:16 PM. Reason : ]

5/16/2008 1:15:38 PM

^ thats awesome

wind energy is exciting, what company do you work for?

[Edited on May 16, 2008 at 3:08 PM. Reason : ]

5/16/2008 3:08:14 PM

I work for Fluor. Its a huge engineering design firm (one of the world's biggest), but because we generally design stuff people outside of the industry just dont see the name since we dont actually produce a physical product if that makes sense.

Most people are like "who?" when I tell them

[Edited on May 16, 2008 at 3:25 PM. Reason : ]

5/16/2008 3:23:37 PM

get you some Taco Bell

5/16/2008 3:34:37 PM

CalledToArms if you know a Sam Jordan tell him to stop slacking and get in touch with the cal lab where his equipment has been sitting on our shelf for like 6 months since we cant get in touch with him! lol

5/16/2008 4:34:24 PM

wind energy is probably my least favorite energy of any of the energies

5/16/2008 4:38:39 PM

^ you say some of the dumbest shit

wtf is wrong with you

5/16/2008 5:55:03 PM

wtb wave energy....you guys see that grid shit they built off the coast of scotland? they say a 25 sq mile grid off the coast of england could produce enough energy for the entire country.....a 25 mile blip of the ocean is nothing

the maintenance required is the killer though

5/18/2008 10:54:17 AM

Quote :

"For a product similar to what is advertised on the pacwind site above and using 1 min. average 10m wind data from a flat farmland location in southeastern Wake county, I anticipate a single wind generator will produce ~90 watts of power averaged over time."

Quote :

"^is that low or high? I would guess a little low, but my perspective is off. Help me out here"

you would need quite an array of generators at 90W/gen. average household appliances use a couple hundred watts each. for example, televisions consume ~200W, computer power supplies 200-500 (some even more). things like microwave ovens, hair dryers at in the >1000W range. I would guess the savings would be more or less akin to turning off lights when you leave the room.

5/18/2008 11:28:15 AM

Quote :

"CalledToArms if you know a Sam Jordan tell him to stop slacking and get in touch with the cal lab where his equipment has been sitting on our shelf for like 6 months since we cant get in touch with him! lol"

haha, what office does he work in?

5/18/2008 12:51:05 PM

90 Watts ?

Ha ha...

I guess if you use those new hippy light bulbs you could keep one room bright.

5/18/2008 11:37:38 PM

compact flourescents require a lot of reactive power to operate, so probably not.

5/19/2008 9:59:16 AM

another reason why they are a horrible idea

5/19/2008 10:57:47 AM