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    WIND Factsheet

    Uploaded by

    Tony Carroll
    Wind power has been used for centuries to grind grain and pump water, but modern wind turbines generate electricity. Small domestic turbines range from 50 watts to 10 kilowatts, while large commercial turbines produce up to 3 megawatts each. The size and wind speed determine a turbine's output, with higher wind speeds and larger blades producing more power. Homeowners can receive financial incentives for installing small turbines through feed-in tariffs that pay for energy generated and exported to the national grid.

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    WIND Factsheet

    Uploaded by

    Tony Carroll
    39 views3 pages
    Wind power has been used for centuries to grind grain and pump water, but modern wind turbines generate electricity. Small domestic turbines range from 50 watts to 10 kilowatts, while large commercial turbines produce up to 3 megawatts each. The size and wind speed determine a turbine's output, with higher wind speeds and larger blades producing more power. Homeowners can receive financial incentives for installing small turbines through feed-in tariffs that pay for energy generated and exported to the national grid.

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    Wind power has been used for centuries to grind grain and pump water, but modern wind turbines generate electricity. Small domestic turbines range from 50 watts to 10 kilowatts, while large commercial turbines produce up to 3 megawatts each. The size and wind speed determine a turbine's output, with higher wind speeds and larger blades producing more power. Homeowners can receive financial incentives for installing small turbines through feed-in tariffs that pay for energy generated and exported to the national grid.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    39 views3 pages

    WIND Factsheet

    Uploaded by

    Tony Carroll
    Wind power has been used for centuries to grind grain and pump water, but modern wind turbines generate electricity. Small domestic turbines range from 50 watts to 10 kilowatts, while large commercial turbines produce up to 3 megawatts each. The size and wind speed determine a turbine's output, with higher wind speeds and larger blades producing more power. Homeowners can receive financial incentives for installing small turbines through feed-in tariffs that pay for energy generated and exported to the national grid.

    Copyright:

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    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 3

    South Yorkshire Energy Centre

    at Heeley City Farm

    Renewable Energy: The facts.

    Wind Power
    Wind power has been exploited for thousands of years for grinding and pumping, but its use
    for generating electricity grew during the 20th century. The design of modern electricity-
    generating wind turbines has evolved a great deal from the early corn-grinding and water-
    pumping ‘windmills’.

    Scale

    You have probably all seen the big white wind turbines on the hills, often in clusters of
    between five and thirty. These are the ‘big boys’, often generating between 0.5 and 3
    Megawatts (a megawatt is 1000 kilowatts) each. A one-megawatt turbine running for an hour
    at maximum speed would power 1000 one-bar electric fires!

    At the opposite end of the scale are very small wind turbines, of the kind that you may have
    seen on narrowboats or caravans. These are used to help keep batteries charged, and may
    range from 50 watts to a few hundred watts.

    In between these two extremes are ‘small to medium’ turbines of 2 – 10 kilowatts which can
    make a significant contribution to the power requirements of domestic buildings and small
    businesses. These can either be used to charge batteries where the property is not
    connected to the National grid, or (with the permission of the electricity company) the turbine
    can be connected into the National Grid. If you choose to do this, you need to ensure that
    you have, or change to, a supplier who will pay you for any surplus electricity you ‘export’ to
    the Grid.

    Aren’t they noisy?

    Noise levels will clearly vary according to design, wind-speed and so on, but our own
    experience with a 2.5 kW turbine show that noise is negligible-hardly greater than the noise
    of the wind in the trees, and never a cause of complaint for local residents.

    How big are they?

    How long is a piece of string?! It depends on the output. A small turbine of 50 watts may
    have a diameter of perhaps 900mm and sit on a mast just tall enough to keep the turbine
    clear of heads and fingers, while our 2.5 kW turbine has a blade diameter of 2.5 metres and
    sits on an 11m mast. One of the ‘big boys’, the 1.5 Megawatt turbine at the Eco-Tech centre
    in Swaffham, Norfolk, has a mast 67 metres high and a blade diameter of 66 metres, and
    turbines of 2 – 3 Megawatts are beginning to be more common.

    A number of building-mounted wind turbines are currently being developed. These typically
    have a peak output of 1 – 1.5 kilowatts

    What really affects the output?


    As suggested above, size has a lot to do with it, but so, of course, has wind speed. Both of
    these factors are governed by very useful ‘rules’. For wind speed it’s the ‘cube rule’. This
    means that if you double the wind speed, the output of the turbine increases by 8 times.
    As far as size is concerned, output goes up by the square of the blade diameter, so if you
    double the blade diameter, you increase the output by 4 times.

    Will I require planning permission?

    Usually, yes. Always consult your local planning department for details.

    How much will it cost me?

    Again, it depends on size. A very small turbine of around 50-70 watts may cost between
    £300 and £500, while a grid-connected 6 kilowatt turbine may cost over £24,000 plus V.A.T.
    installed.

    Can I get a grant?

    Not for a domestic installation since February 2010 (unless your Local Authority has any
    incentive scheme – check with your council’s home energy department).

    But you can get a Feed-in Tariff!

    What is a feed-in tariff?

    A feed-in tariff is an incentive scheme designed to encourage people to adopt


    renewable energy sources. The idea is that a fixed rate will be paid for a fixed term
    for energy generated on a small scale, even if you use the electricity yourself.
    Further payments will be made for energy exported to the national grid. These
    payments significantly reduce the payback period for domestic renewable energy
    sources. The scheme began on April 1st 2010. The Feed-in Tariffs for Wind-power
    appear below::

    Tariff levels for electricity financial incentives

    Year 1: Year 2: Year 3:


    1.04.10- 1.04.11- 1.04.12-
    31.03.11 31.02.12 31.03.12
    Wind ≤1.5kW 34.5 34.5 32.6 20
    >1.5 -
    Wind 15kW 26.7 26.7 25.5 20
    >15 -
    Wind 100kW 24.1 24.1 23.0 20
    >100 -
    Wind 500kW 18.8 18.8 18.8 20
    >500kW -
    Wind 1.5MW 9.4 9.4 9.4 20
    >1.5MW -
    Wind 5MW 4.5 4.5 4.5 20
    Table courtesy of www.decc.gov.uk
    Some manufacturers of domestic-scale wind turbines are:

    Proven Engineering: www.provenenergy.co.uk. Tel: 01560 485 570

    Iskra Wind Turbines: www.iskrawind.com. Tel 0845 8380588

    Marlec Wind Turbines: http://www.marlec.co.uk. Tel: 01536 201588

    Gazelle Wind Turbines: www.mkw.co.uk. Tel: 0191 413 0000

    For further advice on this and other renewable energy technologies contact SYEC on
    0114 2584574 or [email protected]

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