Is anyone using wind to generate electricity - if not why not?

EricMears

sevenhills said:

ecraig said:

Years ago they sold these small wind turbines at B&Q.

We are talking 15 to 20 years ago, i would say, so i am sure new models would be better now, but I believe you’d need a very large and noisy unit to deliver any useful energy.

Obviously bought by people who didn't live in suitable houses.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/georgemonbiot/2009/feb/10/renewableenergy-windpower

B&Q branch in Sutton-in-Ashfield had one mounted on their roof.  I believe it caught fire - certainly looked very blackened before it was removed and has never been replaced

Martyn1981

ecraig said:

Years ago they sold these small wind turbines at B&Q. Can’t remember the price but they were several thousand pounds supplied and fitted. Maybe £10k if my memory serves me well. 

Quite a few hundred were fitted but eventually they ended up being recalled, with all customers having them decommissioned and the company paying to repair any damage to the customers property.

Rumour at the time was that they simply didn’t deliver any useful energy saving and caused a lot of noise to neighbours. Apparently they ended up costing the customer money to actually power them.

We are talking 15 to 20 years ago, i would say, so i am sure new models would be better now, but I believe you’d need a very large and noisy unit to deliver any useful energy.

Yep, I think one brand eventually got the nickname swindlesave.

Couple more problems for the small ones is the power to run the inverter as it needs to be on all the time. In many cases that energy was around half of what they generated. PV inverters can simply switch on when there's enough generation, and can limit or even zero generation when panels are in the sun. But wind inverters need to be powered all the time as the generation from physically spinning, has to go somewhere.

Also, small domestic WT's turn towards the wind, usually due to having tails. So they 'hunt' whenever the wind direction changes. With turbulence in domestic areas, that means they will hunt an awful lot of the time, and when doing that, generation drops off massively. The large commercial WT's, typically point towards the main direction of the wind (at that time), and don't hunt. When the wind direction changes enough, the nacelle is mechanically turned as and when appropriate.

[Edit - Just to say, in case I cause any confusion regarding different size and type of WT's, I'm generalising here, with small WT's hunting, and large ones pointing in the main direction the wind is coming from. M]

None of these are problems that a domestic unit can't overcome, but you do need to get a largish unit, mounted high enough to avoid turbulence from any objects/structures within about 100m, and installed in an area without too much turbulence in the first place. So that rules out most urban and suburban locations, sadly.

But (not a recommendation), we can now invest in wind farms via some investment funds/opportunities, or even directly via Ripple's model.

Reed_Richards

But Ripple are now doing solar farms, I don't think you could still invest in one of their wind turbine projects if you wanted to.

QrizB

Reed_Richards said:

But Ripple are now doing solar farms, I don't think you could still invest in one of their wind turbine projects if you wanted to.

Ripple seem to only have the capacity to develop one project at a time, and their third and fourth ones have been solar. There are still several consented-but-unbuilt onshore wind farm sites in the UK, so they might be able to strike a deal for one of those for a future project.

And there's always UKWIND and similar funds if you don't mind a more abstract ownership model.

Magnitio

Reliability is a big issue with small wind turbines. In blustery or turbulent conditions they are subjected to significant forces. If they are cheap, the bearings wear out and/or corrode. If well built, they are obviously going to be expensive to manufacture.

Ectophile

In gusty conditions, you would be better off with a vertical axis turbine, as they don't care which way the wind is coming from.

They aren't used for big wind farms, as vertical axis turbines are less efficient than windmills.  But on the small scale, the ability to handle wind from any direction can more than make up for that.

silverwhistle

If you want to see small turbines in action any coastal marina will probably do, and the turbines they use are advertised in sailing magazines, from which you can get an idea of cost and output: mainly for battery maintenance I would say.

I do recall seeing a small domestic turbine in a garden on the south side of the Isle of Wight last season when I was playing football over there. In a gap in the downs so maybe the wind funnelling down it made it worthwhile?

Grumpy_chap

There is a supermarket not that far (but not that near) to us that had (I assume still has) a small single wind turbine mounted on the roof near the entrance.  I have no idea how much power it generated.  It was a neat enough item that you would not necessarily notice, but it made a small noise.  Not so much noise that you really were bothered by it in a commercial location which is not quiet anyway but I imagine it would be enough noise that you might find it inconvenient in a domestic setting either at night or if enjoying the garden.