Sunday, January 3, 2010

What Would It Take To Have A Wind Turbine At My House?

By Peter Hainz

Will a wind turbine work at your house? You need an understanding of what the wind resource is at your location. This is not a question about whether it is ever windy there-it is probably windy during storms, but that is merely an observation about the weather. What you want to know about is the long-term average wind speed for your area, or historic climate data, not day-to-day weather.

The quantity of electricity a wind turbine can generate is a result of how much wind you can collect. if you can constantly collect mid to high winds, you may generate much more electricity than if high winds are a unusual occurrence only associated with thunderstorms. So living in an area with a good wind resource is crucial to the successfulness of your wind system.

And equally important is being able to access that wind resource. If you want to float down a river on a raft, you need to be in a part of the river with strong currents. If you are in a protected cove off to the side and isolated from the river current, you may bob around a bit, but you will not make much headway down the river.

Similarly, in order for your wind system to actually generate electricity, your wind turbine must be situated in such a place where it can access the flow of the wind. This is why wind turbines are installed on towers that rise high over the surrounding trees and buildings in an area.

Tall towers are necessary to gain access to the flow of the wind. Installing your wind system on a tower shorter than the area's tree line, or, worse yet, on top of your roof, is akin to floating in a sheltered cove of a river: you may occasionally bob a bit but there will be little forward progress. There is simply little energy in low winds that you can convert into usable electricity. Do you want kinetic yard art or a wind electric generator?

About the Author:

No comments:

Post a Comment