Not 'too' far from you, middle of Ashtabula County, a solar guy got a 403. They don't get much wind. Metered it up to see what it did for him. Tall tower. Didn't do much but make noise. Something about producing 50W sounded like an earthquake. He would have gotten a lot more for his money with solar. He was not happy. Thought it would be OK, maybe, if it was on the beach cliffs, like around Geneva-On-The-Lake.
That is what he said.
I thought of using a water pump as a load diversion for a solar system. Pump water up to a tank when the batteries are full then when the batteries get to 25% or something, drain the tank through a hydro system. The money didn't work out. Cost would have been a LOAD of PV watts.
Something on TV years ago got me thinking about it. It said dams can only make power related to rainfall, so why not solar power water pumps to put the water that is at the bottom back up to the top so it can make power again? If it was sunny, good, pump the water back up. If it was cloudy, its raining. Either way the hydro plant had more water. I guess their math didn't work out either.
The weight idea seems good to me. No water tanks, pumps, pipe, space...
A slew of gearing and pulleys, a gazillion pound weight, and it seems like there would be some power in a days worth of tiny winds. I'm sure someone will say the gearing losses are unsurmountable, and I don't know enough about it to argue either way, I just know this area hasn't got much water drop or wind most days. Excluding this weeks Ivan thing.
FYI / personal note / 'nobody else will get it' type thing: I do Amish solar and LED buggy lights in your neck of the woods! Geauga mostly. My Grandapa was a milker down in Mespo. I'm near Youngstown now. Kind of cool to see somebody from near by. Most people around here think I'm crazy doing this stuff.
G-