wind generator

You'll need to clarify this: are you building 500 units or 3-5 units? What kilowatt size are the generators?

500 units.

we have many many requests from Europe coastal towns.

we also have a contracts from schools and so on

We sourced already PMA generators from China at really good prices

Hello foridel,

If you are the original question asker, please advise the generator output/s.

Are they identical?

Do they have different maximum output ratings?

What are the actual ratings.

Location, so year-round wind speeds and/or winter ice loading of vanes can be allowed for.

That should enable a better answer next time..........

Make a start here by clicking on this link:-

Savonius Wind Turbine

Please do not forget that there are many safety requirements that need to be followed in any windmill project, I will list a few, the list will be far from complete......

1) Need to be able to stop the windmill for maintenance and repair, a brake alone is not good enough as if the brake suddenly fails, someone could get killed either by mechanical action or electrical action.

I liken it to putting a sailboat into wind, the sails are up, but a sudden shift of wind and the boat will be driven again. You must drop the sails to remove the chance that the boat will move. So you need to either "fold" your windmill, or drop something down over it to to remove any chance of it turning. The brake should only be used to bring it to an initial halt, nothing more. A good design will not need a brake anyway.....

2) Proper electrical installation with ELCB protection, installed and designed by a professional. Assuming mains voltages. If batteries, then a proper charge controller that will be a) adjustable b) never overcharge or gas the batteries. If batteries gas, there is a chance of an explosion, so fully ventilated with warning signs for cigarettes and naked lights etc.. Use leisure type batteries, not car batteries, the Leisure type are more forgiving in many ways, but more expensive too....

3) Design windmill to withstand at least 3 times the maximum possible expected wind speed for that area, some might say more to be fully safe, I would not argue with them.

4) Utilise bearings and other parts that are sealed against water and dirt, and are far larger than theoretically needed.....use metals that do not corrode easily. Do not skimp in any design areas. Remember, re-building 500 units due to a failure will cost you your business.....so test in an exposed area for at least a year before finalising your designs.....charge accordingly, but good ones will not be cheap or sell as a kit with all the responsibility on the head of the builder, not you.

I hope this helps.....

I think I have said this before on this forum, but around here we figure a windmill's payback time (considering mast erection, maintenance, batteries, disposal fees for used batteries, and land cost) is around 30 to 40 years, and the windmills effective lifetime is less than 20.

The efforts to improve this include higher outputs (larger units), cheaper batteries, longer maintenance cycles, economies of scale, cheap or subsidised land, electrical inversion (so you can use transformers) and computerization. I understand some wind generation "farms" are actually making money in some parts of the world. Not if they are selling the power for ten cents per kilowatt hour...grin!

The cost of a power installation of any kind is not the initial generator sets, but rather the long term maintenance. You have to be looking at wiring which can withstand the weather for 40 years plus or else is easy to replace. You should be looking at non-polluting cheap edison cells instead of expensive lithium ion or heavily polluting lead acid batteries. Wind power towers in PEI (Canada) kept getting knocked down by the wind with subsequent cleanup and dredging costs. These "minor" details take up 90 per cent of your costing, so even if you got the generator sets for half price, you can maybe cut 5% off the bottom line.

I know...the "sexy" part of the problem is the generation. However the money will need to be spent on the infrastructure. The road to get your maintenance crew up to the top of that mountain! The disposal of lead acid batteries....the replacement of computers when they get hit by the surge from lightning hitting the highest point in the area. The burial of copper wire to prevent copper thieves from ripping them out. Get a handle on those expenses, and you can get the generator sets anywhere! Those inexpensive ones you have already sourced out might be ideal, but they are not where the money will be spent.

Just sayin.....

Lead acid batteries have, at least in Europe, an almost 100% recycle rate, far better than almost anything else in this world that you can mention.....other batteries, cars even houses or what ever.....

So I know they are not exactly energy efficient, but this ability to be almost completely (and at reasonable costs) recycled should not be either ignored or depreciated.......!

Its probably one of the reasons they are still around....

I cannot dispute your other figures, but if the payback on a windmill is as bad as you say, as you seem to know it, why are we building so many of them? Why is it that you know that and all the investment bankers do not?

I know its a good idea to develop knowledge in this area, but we have 1000s of them around in Germany now.....I can see about 20 just from my roof on the horizon alone!!! more each year.

Somehow I have the feeling that we are missing something.....but I do not know enough even to make a guess what it is......perhaps someone else can add some better infos....

Remember all those variables? If you can get somebody to subsidize the roads leading up to the wind farms, AND the distribution network, If you can get somebody to gear up a factory and get some government money because you are producing "carbon credits", if you can get somebody to outlaw competing electrical energy plants (such as nuclear or coal), if you can convince a government to expropriate land and lease it to you for a dollar a year per acre to satisy political interests, then, the rest will be simply a matter of engineering a project. Its not a dirty little secret...its "how its done". And as a matter of risk management, anysubsidy or support which is done can be undone.

What do they know that I don't know? Well, "they" know how to get the politicians on board.

A cautionary tale...around here, even if you build it, then every level of government will suddenly crawl out from under their rocks to tax you on it. (I have the Corel Centre here in Ottawa in mind...grin! They built a freeway interchange and THEN changed their contract and charged the hockey team for it! Go figure!) And they can become very creative. A similar stunt with a wind farm would put it out of business.

Not that I didn't say it would be a bad thing...just that it would not be a profitable thing. But then, neither is a bridge across a river....and that is built for far fewer good reasons than a wind farm. But you ignore these variables at your peril.

You do not give your location and wind conditions. California and Texas have thousands of wind turbines in operation. Wind turbines from a few watts to megawatts are available. Type in google, "wind turbines", "wind power", etc.

Dear Friend

Please introduce yourself, which country you are located in, what is the application and what is the power rating you are looking for. Maybe then somebody would be able to come with an answer to your request.

Ashok Toshniwal, Bangalore, India

http://www2.northerntool.com/product/200320201.htm

There are quite a few of these on the coast (Washington's long beach peninsula) around my cabin (beach shack). They are all privately owned. For the price these seem quite reasonable.

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Eastern Oregon has thousands of really large windmills for electricity. The three bladed towers have to be well over 100 ft tall. I saw just one blade go by on a semi truck. It was around 100 ft long. One of the local electric companies allows you to up your own bill to "use/support" this clean power.

Is there anyone from the power gen. industry out there reading this?

Someone that might know a thing or two about the grid an how credits for emissions, and forced outages affect this investment.

I have a strong feeling this is not a matter of making money.

Perhaps it has more to do with keeping their money.

Most energy in the world is produced from burning coal. Witht the laws changing, companies need to balance out their emissions to be under a certain level based on their output. Companies that cannot clean their emissions with FGD, SCR, and now CCS require that someone does. By producing without emissions, they are actually able to produce more coal power paying less in credits or fines.

This is what I have understood after researching the trends of major producers. They don't make money with solar cells or parabolic mirrors, but they keep more of their money.

Can anyone please confirm from the industry, or please help us all better understand.

Please include what your experience really is, because as I mentioned, mine is just based on reading about trends and legislation (sometimes it is all full of crud).

I know this goes a bit off topic from the initial question, but it seems that was abandoned for the moment anyhow.

Cheers,

Robert