As for WindStor -- an example of a company (McKenzie Bay) that has no product to sell yet, asking for investors. All of the 'photos' on their website are 'simulations' of what it might look like if their product were installed. They DO have a test turbine -- but it's a much smaller version of what they propose to build. You can find it with some hard googling, it's at a university. They also give no information about possible power output at different wind speeds. How could any investor possibly drop a big load of cash on a wind turbine with no performance vs. wind speed data, and no data from any existing installation?
Sorry for the rant, folks, and no offense the posters on this thread. But I don't like bad wind math.
ADMIN
But it's not just the figures that sets me against this product. I live in a small village but we are all on the grid. I could put one of these turbines up and it would bother nobody too much because we have plenty of space. But in general I think most of the villagers a quite anti wind. It's because we are surrounded by open farmland, just the place for a 2 MW utility size wind turbine, and so we all become nimbys.
Most city dwellers probable pay lip service to wind energy, but what would happen if these little devils started popping up in their environment. I have a feeling that as soon as their neighbourhood became festooned with small wind turbines they would become also nimbys. For every happy Windsave customer, and they would probably be happy because the maths of this type of thing is very hard to monitor, there would be perhaps three unhappy neighbours, due to the sight and perhaps sound of these machines. And when somebody is agains one type of wind turbine they are generally against all types, and these people are voters; I don't want to turn too many people against wind energy. Here in the UK there is a rising tide of anti wind people/voters, that's why we have to site turbine in the sea, I don't want this to increase more than it has to.
There are probably two main reasons for wanting to generate your own energy if you are grid tied. One is a hedge against rising grid energy prices, and the other is concern over CO2 emmissions and global warming. But you could use other means of generating electricity. PV would be nice but it's a bit expensive. Thermal solar is cheaper, and although it doesn't generate electricity it does save it. You could buy a Whispergen CHP boiler (well done the Kiwis)which is just coming into use. None of these things should upset the neighbours. There are problably more ways that I haven't thought of.
But if you insist on using wind there is another way to go about it. Size important in wind power, so what's to stop people banding togther to buy large wind turbines and site them on more appropriate sites. I beleive this is done quite a lot in Denmark, it has been done here in the UK by people in a village using a second hand turbine. If it's global warming you are worried about it doesn't have to even be in your own country, you could site it in the most productive place in the world as long as countries co - operated with each other.
I don't want to get tied up with Windstor, I think it's a case of que sera, sera with that one. But I do think that these wind turbines will be sited on industrial estates and not housing estates, and that they come with storage, so their case is not quite the same as Windsave.[ Parent ]
Take a look at the last FAQ on the technical page. What happens to the electricity generated while the house demand it low. Now remember this is not net metering, to have that in the UK you must have two meters, (it just needs a change in the law but Tony Blair doesn't have time for this simple law change he's too busy trying to get us to like nuclear). Anyway, it seems that this electricity is called spillage and it will go to the utility you are with, isn't that nice for them, free electricity to sell to someone else - no wonder it's a utility that is backing Windsave. I hope it will be different for US buyers of this product. Do you know your energy peaks and troughs in house usage. As I have already said the maths of this thing are hard to work out.
The bloke behind Windsave is a smart cookie who has already made a million with another idea, so read the small print, don't let your green energy heart rule your head.[ Parent ]
As far as hanging the thing on a house, we all know how good an idea that is. And I bet the insurance companies will like that as much as they like indoor wood fired furnaces. My neighbor's outdoor wood furnace caused a fire that burned up a storage building and a tractor last winter.GeoM[ Parent ]
