Neighborhood sighting: Ginormous VAWT

[Volvo farmer]

Drove past this thing the other day and my eyes about popped out of my head.  I thought someone had come to claim the $100 VAWT prize I offered here a few years ago. 



Anyway, I went back with camera in hand and the owner was in the process of hooking it up to the grid through an Aurora inverter. Crazy thing was, he was letting it fly unloaded in about a 15 MPH wind, at least that's what he told me. Maybe it protects itself from overspeed, maybe the owner was doing something stupid, I dunno.

It was a very impressive turbine, the tower is 28 feet tall and the thing is supposed to be rated at 5.5KW at 30MPH  It's made by Wepower and looked like it had enough swept area that the rating might be accurate.  I went up and put a hand on the tower with it flying and felt no vibrations at all.  My cursory investigations showed that the thing cost about $25,000, plus installation, plus inverter.  Not exactly homebrew material but the winged part itself didn't look all that complicated. I wondered if an enterprising fellow could make an axial flux alternator for such a beast.

Anyway, I'm planning on dropping back by and seeing how much power it makes. I took a short crappy video of it flying and uploaded it here. I hope it works!
http://tinypic.com/r/2rww954/5

[12AX7]

Hello!

Looks good,  but next time when you go back, could you have someone with a beer bottle in their hand crawl up the tower so we'd get a better idea of it's size?
Looks bigger than one of those full size pick ups.

ax7

[zap]

Although it's kind of hard to tell with that much wind noise on the microphone... it seems pretty quite even spinning at that rpm.

[SparWeb]

There's a dealer in my area that sells + installs those.
I have a neighbour who is considering one, even.

Did anyone ever claim that 100/100/100 prize?

[SparWeb]

Here's their power curve:



Get a load of the way the Y-axis intervals aren't regularly spaced:  500/1200/2800/3800... what the heck?  What does it really look like when plotted on a proper chart?
Annual energy claim on the website doesn't quote tower height, local wind speed or site class.

http://www.wepower.us/products/falcon/falcon-5-5kw.htm

If anyone reading this has experience, or better yet - logged data from one, I'd love to see it!

[electrondady1]

wepower just bought pacwind from the daughter of the their founder.
who  recently passed away.
they are also involved with or merged with a Canadian company called cleanfield energy.
that are building similar mills rated at 3.5kw
they have contracts for installations on schools and commercial buildings.

wepower  is promoting the idea of using verticals to illuminate billboards
there is a huge devise slated for construction on times square.

[Volvo farmer]

Took eighteen months for this guy to figure out he wasn't making any power.

http://www.durangoherald.com/article/20110731/NEWS01/707319910/

Here's what pisses me off regarding the VAWT. Our Electric co-op (read, I) subsidized this installation. Our federal government  (I, again) subsidized this installation, and it doesn't work. It doesn't save the world from climate change, it doesn't even knock a good chunk of money off the owners electric bill. (Why I am paying so he can reduce his bill at all is still beyond me)

I love the Electric co-op "manager of corporate servicers' statement

"But overall, the potential for wind here is marginal," Schwantes said. "But that could change with new technology."

How is new technology going to change the power in the wind?  Sure, maybe there's another 10-15% available, but surely that doesn't make it smart to erect wind turbines where the average wind speed is six miles per hour.

Notice the guy with the HAWTs on reasonably tall towers is actually almost happy with his production.

[Boss]

http://www.durangoherald.com/article/20110731/NEWS01/707319910/
Articles like this irritate me as well
"But overall, the potential for wind here is marginal," Schwantes said. "But that could change with new technology." Statements like this give people with low intelligence hope where none exists
So what technology is going to make more wind available in the future? Or, maybe the smarties are in the R&D phase of creating wind turbines that don't actually need wind, that'd be cool

[Rover]

"So what technology is going to make more wind available in the future? "

I'm going with glacial scraping after an ice age.... I think there is one coming

[None54]

I'm attempting my first picture post, this may not work.

This is my project...not subsidized by anyone except myself, so no money from elsewhere.

None54

[ChrisOlson]

If anyone reading this has experience, or better yet - logged data from one, I'd love to see it!

Not everybody in the wind power business is out to screw the consumer.  I checked into the PacWind (now WePower) Falcon VAWT's some time ago and they are a well built turbine and produce what they claim they do.  There is two of them not far from here on a couple commercial buildings in the Twin Cites and they work good.  I went there and looked at them, and talked to the owner, who is completely satisfied with them.

They are like any wind turbine - they need wind to work.
--
Chris

[electrondady1]

it's interesting that buddy talks about how his fruit trees are distorted by the wind but up around where his windmill is there is very little.
i live next to lake Huron,you can get some very stiff breezes off the lake just from a thermal effect.
but the tops of the trees are relatively still.

[SparWeb]

Took eighteen months for this guy to figure out he wasn't making any power.

http://www.durangoherald.com/article/20110731/NEWS01/707319910/

The question I have to ask is WHY THE BLOODY HELL DON'T THESE IDIOTS HAVE SOLAR PANELS?? 

In 2 minutes I looked up the wind class is #1 (the worst) and the solar radiation average is between 6-8 kWhr/square meter/day, some of the best in the USA!

DUH!

"But overall, the potential for wind here is marginal," Schwantes said. "But that could change with new technology."

Oh, that's easy, didn't you hear?  The next economic stimulus project in the budget is to install 25,000 enormous fans on the west coast.  They will create so much wind that turbines all over the mid-west will double, may be triple energy production.