Your Questions About Wind Turbine Cost

adminsta answers:

1,000 Dollars per Kilowatt Average

adminsta answers:

I am a mechanical engineering junior at Virginia Tech. I did a lot of work with off-grid green housing planning last semester.

Basically, everything has to be just right for a wind turbine to be feasible. There are several issues that you will have to deal with.

1. The wind doesn’t blow all the time. You need to have a battery bank to store excess energy when the wind is blowing so you have electricity all the time. Battery banks need voltage controllers and chargers, inverters, etc. It’s a lot to invest in.

2. The wind doesn’t blow all the time. You can’t size the turbine to provide just equal the amount of power you plan on consuming. You need it to provide an excess so you have something to put in your battery bank. How much bigger than what you intend on using is determined by how often you expect the turbine to be producing useful power.

3. The wind might not blow (effectively) at all. You need to go over years of weather data (try wunderground.com), looking at windspeeds for your area, to see if the wind will even blow enough in your area to justify the turbine.

4. Windspeeds are measured at a height of 30 feet. The speed closer to the ground is significantly slower. You need to have a mast for your turbine tall enough to receive the windspeed you think you have.

These are just some considerations you need to think of once you have figured how much power you will be using. The bulk of your energy will be spent on heating and/or cooling your home. If you can find a way to use other alternatives to electricity (wood heat, propane stoves, etc.), it will let you reduce the size (read: cost) of your turbine a lot.

If you want to compare the cost of the power output to what you pay for electricity, well, the power produced by wind is free. What you have to figure is the cost of the power system you’re building. These costs don’t even begin to become competitive with commercial power until you average their costs over 10 to 15 years.

The costs you need to consider include purchasing the equipment, installation, and maintenance. You wouldn’t expect a car to run 10 years maintenance free, and it doesn’t turn 24/7. It’s not as though there are any wind turbine shops you could take it to. You’d need a specialist to come in.

As far as actually calculating the power outputted by the turbine, as many others have noted, you need to know the voltage and current output of the turbine. Multiplying the two (Volts * Amps) gives you the power in Watts. You need to remember, though, that the charging controller that regulates your battery bank and the inverter you use to convert from DC to AC will both draw a non-trivial amount of power. There will be losses, and how big of a percentage those are depend on how large your system is. A 500W drain is a lot bigger for a 10kW system than for a 100kW system.

The only reason that I’m giving you this much information is that you seem unsure, and yet you posted that you are or are planning on building a wind turbine. I would very highly suggest hiring an engineer to do these calculations for you, because there is a LOT of planning and work that needs to go into correctly sizing a wind turbine.

If you’re going to buy a wind turbine, a battery bank, voltage regulators, inverters, pay for maintenance and installation, then you should spend the money on an engineer to make sure you’re getting the right stuff. If you size your equipment too small, you’ll have blackouts. If you size it too big then you’re overpaying for startup costs.

adminsta answers:

There are many variables here. First is your location. Defining factors are sustained wind velocity and average daily unobstructed sun. If you have average winds of 12-15 MPH or 6 sun hours the next consideration is initial cost. Large wind turbines need sustained winds in the 20 + Mph range for peak efficiency and become less cost effective if your wind energy is less. Wind generators are now much more expensive than photovoltaic panels but if you have the correct wind – much more efficient. Solar panels however are totally passive, twice as efficient as one year ago and virtually maintenance free with 25 year warranties. Wind turbine maintenance on the other hand can be 25% of initial cost as often as every 2 years. With the new grid tied systems batteries, inverters and converters are eliminated.
The amount of power generated may also qualify you for State Grants at different levels of Energy generated and may also make you eligible for additional grant money or a higher percentage of State funding. Check these things with your States “Alternative Energy” page.
Another consideration is payment for your Carbon Credits. Our local utility pays almost 2 to 1 for Kwh’s generated from Photovoltaics – since there are few if any Wind generators locally I don’t know if this would be true for them as well.
Depending on your state there are different grants for each type of generating device and the individual utility companies reimburse for “carbon credits” at individual rates. Either system gets a 30% Federal Tax Credit in “actual dollars” against the amount of tax liability (but not refundable over this amount – until 2016)
In my area (Southwest Ohio) we have good sun but nowhere near enough wind so our system is Solar. Hope this helps.

adminsta answers:

You will need a small turbine, perhaps 2000 watts, a large battery or set of batteries, a charge controller and an inverter. My guess is about $4000 not including installation costs.

But first check with your power company to see if they allow you to sell them power. This means that you can interconnect your turbine output to the power companies lines, and sell them power when the wind is blowing good, and buy power from them when it is not. It will cost extra as they require special equipment installed by them. But you can get by with a much smaller battey.

Then check with your local town and county authorities to see if it is allowed. Then check with your neighbors.

If you do not interconnect with the power company, then you have to calculate battery size. It will be determined by how long you want electricity when there is no wind. If you load is 1000 watts and you want to keep running for 8 hours with no wind, that is about 8 large batteries. If you can cut it down to 2 hours at 500 watts, that is one battery. A large marine sealed lead acid battery is good for about 1000 watts for an hour, and costs about $300.

If your average load is 1000 watts, you should get a 2000 watt turbine so you have extra to charge the batteries, and for low wind days.

Search on the internet for “home wind turbine” and you will find any number of vendors. They will supply the charge controller and the inverter also.

But I recommend you get an expert electrician who is experienced in this to do the wiring for you.

Here is one link, there are many others

http://www.solar-systems.ca/windturbinegenerator.php

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