Facts About a Small Wind Generator up to 50 kW
In a perfect world, every little American tract home would come complete with its own independent wind-powered turbine, and “the grid” would become just another relic of the “modern industrial era.” Folks in remote rural locations have relied on small wind generators for decades. The big brouhaha over wind power and renewable energy seems a little silly to country folks, because they long ago freed themselves from the grid, or the grid never quite got to their houses in the first place.
“Small” here signifies a wind turbine capable of generating anything up to 50 kW. Discussing “small-scale wind energy,” the more proper and precise term for use of a small wind generator, you must remember wind-power experts draw a sharp, inviolable distinction between “power” and “energy.” “Power” describes what a turbine can generate running at peak capacity for a minute or so. In other words, “power” means “if you blow on the blades really really hard for a minute or so, this is the best the machine will produce.” Power ratings frequently impress newbies, but the winderati understand that only “energy” matters. “Energy” refers to the amount of electricity a turbine consistently generates over some useful unit of time—an hour or a day, for example, or a month, or a year. For the sake of determining whether a small wind generator will work in your location, you should calculate the unit’s annual energy production according to wind and weather statistics.
For just about every other comparison and calculation, rely on kilowatts per hour and the cost of producing electricity per kilowatt-hour. In an average North American community, electricity from fuel generators costs approximately 4-7¢ per kilowatt-hour. In order for a small wind generator to make economic sense in your location, it ought to pay for itself in no more than a couple of years, generating electricity at almost no cost whatsoever after the cost-recovery period. Keep in mind, however, we have almost no reliable data on the feasibility of small wind generators’ use in cities and suburbs, because wind conditions change according to architecture and man-made climate effects. When you see comparisons of costs per kilowatt-hour, the statistics derive from costs of electricity produced at relatively small wind farms, and fuel-powered generators still hold the advantage–4¢ per kilowatt-hour to 16¢ per kilowatt-hour.
In everyday practical terms, a small wind turbine ought to produce enough electricity to run all the lights, appliances, and electronic gadgets in your house, store some juice in your batteries, and leave just a little left over for sale back to the poor folks still on the grid. No matter how reliable your average daily wind, you ought to have a battery with substantial storage capacity, because just about every place on earth experiences occasional doldrums.
Yes, a small wind generator ought to come as standard equipment on every American home. Only one tiny problem stands in the way of this utopian vision’s fulfillment: In cities and suburbs, the average home has neither room nor sufficient wind density to support a small wind generator. “Small” refers to capacity, not to size, and a so-called “small” machine typically requires blades that sweep more than thirty square yards—at least, at the very, very least, a ten-foot diameter. And those ten-foot blades must stand atop a four- or five-storey tower. None of these numbers add-up to tract-home dimensions. No one ever has installed a small wind generator that freed an urban or suburban single-family home from its abject dependence on the grid. The best an urban track home could do would be to install a small wind generator of 1-2 kW.
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