Domestic Wind Turbines Blog

Archive for the ‘WIND POWER ELECTRICITY’ Category

Hi,

I’m doing my ISU and i have a simple question:

Would you pay more money on your electricity bill for wind power? What about other clean renewable energy?

I wouldn’t pay any more for wind power, or any other kind of green power. The only long-term, sustainable way for green power to work is for it to be more cost effective than other forms of energy. This will happen one of two ways:

1) The government puts so many taxes and restrictions on non-green power (or gives leniency and tax breaks to green power) that it becomes more profitable to utility companies to use green power.

2) The cost of digging for more oil, and supplying other non-green energy forms becomes so expensive due to diminishing raw forms of it that it is more profitable for companies to use green energy.

This is really an economics problem. All businesses will make decisions to make as much profit as possible, even utilities. When green-power fits into this catagory it will be used.

For me wind power takes up too much land for the amount of energy you get in return. I prefer nuclear and clean burning waste to energy incinerators (which would also help to take care of our garbage problem). From the studies I’ve seen, green energy just isn’t efficient enough to power the whole planet. The only option that might be viable is in the area of solar power. If engineers can design a more advanced way to capture the sun’s power it’s possible that it could power the planet, but it would need to be a lot more efficient than what we have today.

One out of the box idea I like is requiring all buildings to have a power generating wind mill and/or solar panels. This would greatly reduce the need for power from power plants, regardless of their energy source.

I have a friend who would like to install a wind generator for electricity, but the local power company will not let him connect to the power grid unless he can show that he has a million dollars insurance. Well, he cannot find any company that offers that type of insurance for any price. He has written to everyone he can think of but still no source of insurance. The reason he wants to connect to the power grid is to use it as his storage system so that he doesn’t have to maintain a whole bank of storage batterys. Does anyone know where he can get this type of insurance for a system that will be in the state of Texas?

Call your electric company; the folk you would have had to call anyway to get connected & let them know that you would like a reverse meter so that they can measure how much energy that you are back feeding. There is specific wiring for this that has to be approved through your county anyway & it is a safety feature for people working on the lines after a storm so you don’t inadvertantly electrocute a lineman who is trying to restore power around you. They will no doubt have the answers that you need or can advise you on where to look for the insurance. The way that you do a million dollar insurance policy is called an UMBRELLA POLICY on the homeowner’s. That isn’t hard. It is a property insurance that goes above what the homeowner’s insurance carries. The UMBRELLA coverage is a catastrophic event coverage that is called secondary insurance. It isn’t even very expensive as it covers after everything else has been exhausted first. Go to yahoo & google Umbrella insurance & then if that doesn’t work, look at commercial insurance companies in your area. I know that CNA which is a HUGE insurance company, they write in Texas & may be able to write your friend the policy that he needs. I hope this helps. I used to do underwriting assistance for them & I helped insure folk in Texas in particular.

Let’s say the wind power plant costs $ 300 million. You will supply electricity to residential homes.
What do you think? How long will it take to recoup that $ 300 million?

You are asking this q at this forum? I am surprised.
Not unless this is idle curiosity. If you are a serious investor you obviously won’t ask it here – but hire some experts to do that job.

Now, do the math. $300 Mill. as fixed cost. Operating cost will at least be $1 Mill a year that includes salary, admin, maintenance, land cost electricity distribution cost etc…

How many homes this windfarm will serve?. That’s the key. Each home on an average consumes 1500 Kwh; at about say, 12 cents a Kwh, that is, $200 per month. ie., $2500 to $3000 per year.
Then, you work backwards: How many homes can YOU serve with your wind farm?. What is the generating capacity.? Higher the capacity, more investment is the result and more running cost.

So, it is difficult to answer until we know how many Kwh can your plant produce for how many homes.

Then, you will know the profit you can make after all the disbursements. If you repay $300Mill over 20 to 25 years with interest, then your profit must be…..xxxxx….dollars. So, you see, it is not that simple to answer.
But wait. Government will kick in quite a bit of money becauise windfarms are environment friendly, no pollution. So, that’s where you go first with hat in your hand.

Also, how does a wind turbine create electricity?

At higher level the wind velocity is much higher.
The tall tower base allows access to stronger wind in sites with wind shear. In some wind shear sites, the wind speed can increase by 20% and the power output by 34% for every 10 metres in elevation.

A wind turbine converts the energy of wind into kinetic energy. If the mechanical energy is instead converted to electricity, the machine is called a wind generator.

The wind turns the blades of the windmill. The movement of the blades then powers the mechanics of a machine. The blades of electricity-generating windmills are connected to a drive shaft. This in turn runs an electric generator. The electricity is then sent through wires and can be distributed or stored for future use. These mills are also called wind turbines.

I came accross a new, proven and tested home made wind power system and solar power system which eliminates our electricity bills. It was written by a Renewable energy enthusiasts Michael Harvey the diy called Earth4energy. You can get your copy to save energy and help environment while eliminating your power bills. Get it from here: http://www.earth4energy-review.com

Hope everyone will follow this guide and save the earth.

I have seen so many of these, and while they do sound good, it basically come down to a sales pitch without any concrete information other than to pitch their E-book, which doesn’t even involve printing cost.
The testimonials are alway just names without contact numbers, even the ones that say they would be happy to recommend it.

The big question is, is this your book?
and if it is not your book, have you tried it?

Pump sea water up to resevoir say at Beachy Head and then let it out to sea again to create hydo electric power. That way when the wind doesnt blow you can still have electricity. Just need enough wind pumps to fill the resevoir when its windy. No extra demand on fresh water resourses and water pumping is simpler and easier than generating electricity from wind

There are projects under trial to do just this. One being developed in Devon is Searaser. Go to www.searaser to find out more. The biggest problem with this is the environmental impact of a reservoir, however it would provide a good habitat for sea water creatures, birds etc.

Hi, I understand that we can actually make our own electricity with wind power. But, How to make wind power so that I can use the free electricity for my appliances?

it is not that easy, first off,

first, you need to have the air flow to turn your wind generator. (you can build or buy, look at wind-x i don’t remember exactly what it is called,but that is a start, for internet search under alternate energy

next, you have to produce enough power to use, that is if you have a load of 5000 max watts, ac running, refrig, and other things in the power drain, you need more than 5000 watts so that you don’t have a brown out.

if you use batteries, you will be using an inverter.
the most effienct systems use wind, solar panels, and batteries along with some grid power to help when the other two fail

typically, a system will require 25 years to pay for itself

i’m currenly building such a system with the help of some friends by email and asking questions

its about how we can use wind power from a fan to generate electricity and light a light bulb…thxXx
10 points for best answer!!!

It’s all hitting the fan here

what are the positives of wind power?
i have got so far that
off shore takes up no land
it can provide 10% of UK’s electricity
it is renewable
and it doesnt cause and pollution

Many positive however they kill birds who fly into them and can block out radar systems acording to the Minesrty Of Defence.

the Philippines has the potential to generate 70,000 megawatt of electricity from wind power. what is the total energy consumption of the Philippines? will 70,000 megawatt be enough to supply a large percentage of electricity for all of the Philippines?
nobody read or answered the question.

There is no continuous winds that have the potential to sustain a profitable wind power operation. But there is one way and that is to harness powerful winds blown out by seasonal typhoons. Unfortunately, they are very destructive and limited only during the rainy seasons. So for the rest of the year, the expensive turbines and generations would only rather be a huge liabilty. Also, dams will have more than enough water to operate hydropower plants. So in one way or another, there will be excess production that will most likely not be used so they should be stored for future demand. And storing of produced electric power is costly if not unfeasible to the Philippines.