Thread: Setting up a very small turbine to the grid

Just to add, denmark which is reputed to be the winiest placein teh world and has several offshore fields such a Mittelgrunden has the following according to Wikipaedia.

In 2005, Denmark had installed wind capacity of 3,127 MW, which produced 23,810 TJ (6.6 TW·h) of energy, giving an actual average production of 755 MW at a capacity factor of 24%.[1] In 2009, Denmark's capacity grew to 3,482 MW; most of the increase came from the 209 MW Horns Rev 2 offshore wind farm, which was inaugurated on September 17, 2009 by Crown Prince Frederik.[14] the end of 2010[update], Denmark's capacity stands at 3,752 MW; most of the year's increase came from the Rødsand-2 off-shore wind farm.[15]

This accords with figures from the Mittelgrunden site indicating around the same % down to about 12% in July.
Regards Philip A

I love the negativity, it makes me feel warm and fuzzy. According to willyweather.com.au the average wind speed in Beaufort at 2m above the ground this year is 5.5ms. The neighbors wind turbine is their only source of power and they use a bar heater as the load dump. One thing i've learn't from buggerizing around with my wind turbine is the numbers offered up in general mean not much. Something funny I just found out, the guy who first came up with the system for measuring wind speed was named Beaufort. I don't know what terrain you guys live in or how much practical experience you have with turbines but Beaufort is smack bang in the middle of amazing prevailing winds all year round, could be why their are plans for a 200mw wind farm there. Anyway fellas, jump and down all you like but I am positive this little turbine will put out 3.36kw per 24hrs minimum and I'm quietly confident it will almost triple that ON AVERAGE over 12 months. I do however reserve the right to fit 5 blades instead of the standard 3.

One more thing, keep the robust debate going, as far as i'm concerned this thread is great just because of the step up thing I bought! Thanks bee utey!

My wife grew up in Warrnambool. She knows about continuous wind. That's why she moved away, it drove her nuts!

Enjoy your wind, it sounds like a valuable resource.

Do you realise that there is no weather station in Beaufort, and willyweather looks to be reporting the numbers for Ballarat airport?

Anyway, assuming that you have the same wind conditions as whatever willyweather is showing, I'd knock the average down a bit because it looks like you have a fair amount of high wind (which isn't useful to a turbine). Having said that, if you manage to average 7m/s at turbine height of 12m (which is about 5.5m/s at 2m height) conventional wisdom suggests you'd make about 3kwh/day on average. Which is about 43% capacity factor and way better than any commercial wind farm I've heard of.

The dump load doesn't really relate to anything except the capacity of the turbine - you always need a dump bigger than anything the generator can throw at it under maximum generation. When their batteries are 100% full and they have no usage, all the power from the turbine goes to the dump so it has to be big enough to cope.

If you've got all that wind you should do well... but not a 70% capacity factor!

It should be possible to do both..

We've lashed out on a 3.76 kW system, 16 panels (in 2 strings of 8), feeding in to a 3-input, 4.6kW inverter.

This leaves us the option of upgrading with another string, or, a wind-generator of some kind.

Some real-life figures for comparison.

Our metal roof is pitched at 18 degrees and faces exactly NE, which gives us best production early in the morning. By 3 pm the output is dropping fast and after 4pm is pretty dead. By contrast, the system is awake at 6 ~ 6:30 AM.

Last Friday was a good day... 900 watts at 6:30AM and 3195 Watts at midday, producing 14 kW/hs in that time-slot. We exported 10, bought in zero.

Previous day it generated 25 units, importing ONE unit and exporting 18. - That was from 6:30AM to 6:00pm

Yesterday over here was overcast and rainy, and we bought 5 units and sold 1. Total day's production was 6 units.

The original plan was to put up a 3rd string when finances (or insanity) permit. Or Wife...

Since the current setup easliy reaches 3kW under good conditions, and I've seen in excess of 4kW, the new string would have to be N or NE facing.
However, we do get the morning 'Gully Winds' in the warmer months, and they can go for 4 ~ 6 hours consistantly... which makes this thread rather interesting !

These guys made their own turbine. I like the DIY approach to keep the costs down, I don't know if they are anywhere near the potential efficiency for a big set of blades like theirs coupled to their home made alternator.