The Wind Power Turbine
Lower Cost Clean Energy

The wind power turbine is a good residential off grid power generator if the necessary conditions allow its installation. It is a relatively cost effective power generator, it should be backed up by either a solar power system and/or by a diesel generators. In most cases, deep cycle storage batteries are also required.

The necessary conditions for installing the Wind Power Turbine

The small wind turbine is the heart of the residential wind based power plant. It is a very cost effective solution if the following conditions exist:

• The prospect site has enough wind (the information is available in Wind Maps).

• The prospect site is at least one acre in size

• The local zoning regulation code allows wind turbines.

• The turbine is installed far enough from the neighbors’ homes

photo credit: Aleksander Kwiatkowski – flickr

The small wind turbine is not a complete power plant

A complete wind turbine generator ready to actually provide electrical power is installed on a tall tower. The tower and the installation adds considerably to the cost of the wind turbine generation system. Usually, other components are added such as remote control and remote monitoring

Grid connected Wind Turbine Generator

If your home is on grid, your best choice is to connect the turbine seamlessly to the grid. With proper net metering, there will be times when you feed the grid and get paid and times when you buy electricity from the utility. Your utility bill will be much lower. You save the headache of buying and installing a charge controller and batteries

Off Grid Wind Turbine Power Generation

If your home is remote from the grid, your wind generator must include a charge controller and batteries. It is recommended to add an off grid solar system. An hybrid solar/wind system is a very good combination because wind can back the lack of solar radiation after sunset. The two systems can share components such as the batteries, the charge controller and the DC to AC converter

North American manufacturers

Bergey is in the wind business for many years and they have a very good Web site. Skystream and Airbreeze are two of the most popular products