I'm often asked about power production from a turbine. It's a great
question. And I answer it with every site assessment I perform. Power
production is the key to determining your systems' return on investment.
Suprisingly, the turbine rating has only a loose coorelation to the
amount of power the turbine will produce over a given time period.
Look at the table below to see what I mean.
Maker
Southwest
Windpower
Abundant
Renewable Energy
Eoltec
Bergey
Model
Skystream
3.7
ARE
110
Scirocco
Excel
Number
of blades
3
3
2
3
Rotor
Diameter Meters (Feet)
3.7
(12.1)
3.6
(11.8)
5.6
(18.4)
7
(23)
Inverter
SWWP,
Built in to Nacelle
SMA
Windy Boy
Power-One
Aurora
Bergey
Grid-Tek
High
wind protection
Rotor
break
Side
Furl
Blade
pitch control
Side
Furl
Rated
Peak Output (kilowatts)
1.8
2.5
6.0
10
Kilowatt-hours
per year
3,061
3,604
9,724
10,214
To compare production, I put each turbine on a
hypothetical 60-foot
tower under identical wind conditions (shown below). These
production numbers are
representative of turbine performance. Naturally, performance at your
site and tower height will be different.
Notice that the Skystream is rated at 1.8 kilowatts and the ARE 110 is
rated at 2.5kw yet they produce within 600 kilowatt-hours a year. More
surprising, the Eoltec Scirocco at 6kw produces almost as much
as the
Bergey Excel at 10kw.
Why pick one over the other? If it is strictly money you care about,
then in Massachusetts, the Renwable Energy Trust grant is based on
turbine rating. The grant is currently (May '07) $2.25 per watt of
rated power. Thus, the Eoltec Scirocco is worth $13,500, the Bergey is
worth $22,500 in grants. The grant more than makes up the difference in
cost
between the two turbines (tower options however, tend to even things
out a bit).
New England Breeze, LLC. ♦ Phone: 978-567-9463 ♦ Fax: 866-903-1651 ♦ Email
Located in Hudson Massachusetts
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