Archive for December, 2008
Embodied Energy and Carbon Payback Time
One of the arguments raised against turbines – large or small – is the amount of CO2 used in their manufacture, and the length of time it takes for the turbine to save that. The wind industry has made some stabs at guessing this in relation to large turbines, and the figures are in fact [...]
Payback time for turbines?
Hugh Piggott once wrote “Why should it necessarily compete against cheap power from polluting engines? …The satisfaction of generating your own power, independently, from a clean endless source, is hard to quantify.” When we first bought our Proven 2.5kw turbine, we did so because we were happy enough to pay 50c or so per kwhr [...]
Feed-in Tariff Ireland
VGrid-Tied Systems are to get a feed-in tarriff. When we started this project to design a wind turbine, we knew that without a feed-in tariff, the market in Ireland was going to be limited. We figured we could put in the work on designing a turbine, sell it mainly in the UK and mainland Europe, [...]
Our first prototype goes up!
Our first prototype has gone up in Scotland. This isn’t the final generator or tower (these are all in production at this very moment), but already we can see that this turbine is going to work as we expected. It spins constantly in even very low wind, and the voltages are at levels that will [...]
Our Proven turbine comes down (only for maintenance)
Meantime, we have taken down our 5 year old Proven 2.5kw generator for maintenance. This is its third time coming down. Strictly speaking it should be its fifth. Unfortunately the bearings need to be greased, the slip rings need to be cleaned and have their springs oiled and a few other annual maintenace jobs are [...]
2.5kw Domestic Wind Turbines
Turbotricity 2.5kw domestic wind turbines are designed to be rugged, affordable, trouble free, but most of all, productive in a wide range of wind conditions, particularly light winds. How do we aim to do this? For years, we’ve wondered how a tower, generator, blades and some simple electronics could cost more than the average family [...]
Electrical principles for wind turbines
Most domestic turbines use permanent magnet generators. Provided they are well made, these are simple and reliable, but when you spin the shaft, there is a cogging resistance to movement which prevents them from starting up in low wind conditions. On top of this, most generating systems don’t start putting electricity into the grid (or [...]
Design considerations for wind turbines
Downwind or Upwind? Most commercial turbines face upwind. Larger ones rely on expensive control gear and motors to either change the blade pitch, or to turn the generator out of the wind when the going gets rough. Smaller turbines often have a tail fin which lifts to allow the turbine turn out of the wind. [...]