Bought a Wind Turbine

[Teken]

Only went up $25 bucks a year. Not too bad.

That's not too shabby to be honest. I thought you were going to say it went up $200.** or more!

Teken . . .

 

[Falcon67]

Hard to get pictures of how much is around here - taken from the road one block from the house - 1st the South, 2nd to the West. Big suckers, the nacels come on flatbeds and are about the size of a decent motor home:

 

[HoosierBuddy]

Tom

I agree with your point regarding power companies losing money with a zero bill. However, is the bill ever zero?

I (perhaps incorrectly) assume that the customer pays a monthly customer charge regardless of usage. Assuming the power company is using a fixed variable rate structure, the monthly customer charge "theoretically" covers the power companies fixed costs and the per KWH charge (zero in our example) is used to cover only the varible costs associated with the power itself.

I also (perhaps incorrectly) assume the power company never pays for any net power placed on it's system at the end of the month. In other words, if you make more than you use, you get a credit for KWH but not a credit in $$$.

I'm not big into governement market manipulation, but I really like the whole concept of distributed generation and net metering. Unfortunately, the area of Indiana I live in rates really low for available wind power (especially in the summer when it gets very hot, very humid, with little or no wind) and photovoltaics would cost a small fortune.

I'm waiting on someone to market a home sized fuel cell in the US. They've got them in Japan. They can use them to provide heat and generate power. Initially, a guy would probably have to run it off natural gas...but bio gas would also be a possiblity.

Phil

 

[mrgm]

Hard to get pictures of how much is around here - taken from the road one block from the house - 1st the South, 2nd to the West. Big suckers, the nacels come on flatbeds and are about the size of a decent motor home:

i dont care what people say, i love the way those look on the landscape. I see them to my West and east on the hilly ranges of Abilene.

 

[Teken]

Hard to get pictures of how much is around here - taken from the road one block from the house - 1st the South, 2nd to the West. Big suckers, the nacels come on flatbeds and are about the size of a decent motor home:

That is an incredible sight . . .

Teken . . .

 

[Tech Guy]

Pretty nice set up. We helped put one in at a clients about 9 years ago. 80 ft tower. Turbine hinges up at high speeds and the blades pretty much stop at that angle. Assembled everything on the ground and used the crane to lift the tower in place. Cool view from 80 ft up. Threw some surveillance cameras on the tower at the same time.

First turbine grenaded about four years in. Manufacturing issue. Saw the blades blow past the cameras. Threw a new one in and its been great. Batteries maintained reguarly but will require replacement soon. System works excellent. When it was put in, Ontario did not give credits for excess power dumped back into the grid. That has since changed so the client now charges his batteries and powers both barns and feeds back into the grid.

 

[DSLTRK]

Update* We've now made over 14,000 kWh. I've included some pictures of installs we've done in Apple Valley, Hesperia and Phelan CA. These turbines are different than ours, they are mounted on monopole towers. Two are 80 foot tall, one is 50 foot.
Start of foundation

Steel is in

Partial pour

Finished

Assembly

Crane day

Finished and generating power!

 

[mrgm]

I am glad this thread came up again. Just bought a house outside city limits in 5 acre lot. Will defiantly be looking into wind energy. i just hope it is worth doing.

 

[where2]

I am glad this thread came up again. Just bought a house outside city limits in 5 acre lot. Will defiantly be looking into wind energy. i just hope it is worth doing.

While you are doing your homework on RE, go to Lowes.com and look at the $12k Westinghouse Solar 20 panel package. It's roughly $2.75/DC Watt including micro-inverters and racking and is fairly DIY simple to install.

As the grid becomes smarter, the balance between RE production and fossil fuel production will blur more. My utility has a fossil plant that they are partly running using concentrated thermal to generate steam to drive the turbine.

For the free market folks: remember that your local power company is usually a monopoly. Mine has recently been complaining that their 10% profit margin is too low. Considering the economy, a monopoly making 10% profit seems pretty good if you compare it to most non-monopoly businesses locally!

 

[Beaumont67]

While you are doing your homework on RE, go to Lowes.com and look at the $12k Westinghouse Solar 20 panel package. It's roughly $2.75/DC Watt including micro-inverters and racking and is fairly DIY simple to install.

As the grid becomes smarter, the balance between RE production and fossil fuel production will blur more. My utility has a fossil plant that they are partly running using concentrated thermal to generate steam to drive the turbine.

For the free market folks: remember that your local power company is usually a monopoly. Mine has recently been complaining that their 10% profit margin is too low. Considering the economy, a monopoly making 10% profit seems pretty good if you compare it to most non-monopoly businesses locally!

^^^^ Looks good...here is a link...Lowes is $1,000 cheaper, on package.
Westinghouse Solar ‘Contractor’ Kit http://www.onestopgreen.com/innovat...or-kit/westinghouse-solar-contractor-kit.aspx

 

[pop pop]

You missed the point. The renewables only reduce consumption by the end user, not the utility. The wind and solar do not make power when it is needed (during the peak system demand), and they never will it is just wasted power put on the grid that is not used. Even if every home in the U.S. had solar panels, the big coal plants would still run all day long because you cannot store grid power on any meaningful scale and the power plants cannot be shut down because they will be needed again in the evening when the solar and wind stop and the consumers turn on the TV and cook dinner.

The problem with this is that if you put power on the grid during the day it does very little good and is essentially a waste of power. Eventually if enough people go to home generation, your power company will change its rate structure to a flat rate and you will just pay for standby service. Your rate will not be influenced by what you use, but by the cost of the companies fixed assets and maintenance costs. There are no free lunches you will still pay the same either way in the long run and until someone can store vast amounts of energy for later use then solar and wind are a complete sham. Nukes are a good option since they can run anytime, but the holy grail is cold fusion but that is decades away at the earliest.


Tom

Tom, it's useless. You can't train sheeple. They all have engineering degrees from the government.

 

[pop pop]

So now I "Stole" your hard earned cash. I think you should start attending more reputable RE conferences to get a better understanding of how it works.
Firstly, the CA RE rebate is replenished by power companies that only provide power to CA. It's not funded partially by some guy living in Florida. Only qualified persons who are on "on grid" with SCE PG&E etc. supply the fund.

OK, you're on the dole for now, but when you Crazyfornians can't make the next payment, who are you going to turn to??? I know :-(

 

[pop pop]

Maybe I missed it, but when the generator(invertor) fails, dies whatever...you don't spend another 60k....you have it rebuilt, right??
So what it the worst case rebuilt cost?? HOw much if the thing dismounted itself and came spiraling to the ground?? Just curious...
I like the whole idea...

BTW....everyone....if the contractor gets all his money, whatever percentage from the power co. or government....whatever...Does he put it in a jar an sit on it?? NO, he dumps it back into the economy whether it be a goddamn power boat or a new install truck or a big *** house....who cares?!! It's going into OUR economy. THAT"S A STIMULUS!!!!! Show me a contractor who gets a pile of money that DOESNT spend it in some fashion or another, and I'll show you some pictures of mythical people of my own...


Thanks.


-T

Nope, goes to China's economy.