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.

http://BuildYourOwnWindmillToday.com Don’t pay for your electricity any more…Instead, the power company will pay YOU! But only you can make it happen. Go to http://BuildYourOwnWindmillToday.com now.

Duration : 0:1:0

Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: build, diy, Do, It, own, residential, wind, Windmill, windmills, windpower, your, Yourself

http://tinyurl.com/mzhx5r - DIY Turbine Plans - I’ve learned that a quality wind generator system requirers quality plans and instructions to make a DIY turbine happen, and I had seen several plans and many videos, So when I found Earth4energy I knew that it was a great DIY turbine package with clear and specific plans and instructions including a complete shopping list for all parts needed so I was’nt running around town picking up one part at a time. If you want to learn how to build a wind generator then watch this video and find DIY turbine plans.

How to build a wind generator - DIY turbine plans

Duration : 0:3:36

Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: crisis, energy, generator, green, grid, natual, power, renewable, solar, turbine, wind

www.good.is/ecosystem

Our planet is a fragile ecosystem. To keep it in balance, well have to figure out how to harness nature to generate clean, affordable energy. Catapult Design in San Francisco has one answer. Their turbines are cheap and practical, and can power a light or charge a cell phone in villages that are off the grid.

Duration : 0:2:56

Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: Good, Harmony, Magazine, mini, Prius, Toyota, turbines, wind

windturbine ametek home made testing 3 trying tail made it longer

Duration : 0:0:20

Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: (made, Do, home, It, power, self, turbine, wind, your

What physics is related to it (secondary school - to early university level physics)? Also, how would a basic wind turbine be constructed and how would you go about testing the factors that affect the efficiency?

Efficiency (the ratio of actual power out to theoretical power out) is not the primary design goal for a windmill or turbine. The real goal is minimizing total cost per unit energy.

Efficiency is a factor, but initial cost, ease of maintenance, suitability to the context, etc. are all more important. (Just as with gasoline and diesel engines).

Thus, it is clear that theoretical efficiency goes up with the number of blades, but going from 1 blade to 2 increases efficiency by only 6%. Going from 2 to 3 blades increases efficiency by 3%.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_turbine_design#Blade_count
Going from 2 blades to 3 blades might pay, but while 4 blades would be a little bit more efficient, the gain just isn’t worth the costs. Similarly, a 3_D helical turbine can be more efficient that a planar turbine, but would be much too hard and expensive to build.

For another example, Darrieus wind turbines are never as efficient as propellor type turbines, but are still considered practical for power generation:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darrieus_wind_turbine
For one thing, they never have to rotate to face the wind; and their electronics can all be at ground level for ease of access:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertical-axis_wind_turbine

That’s even more true of Savonius turbines:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savonius_wind_turbine#Use

A subtle point is determining which "theoretical power" to count. In general, the higher you go the faster the wind and power goes up as the cube of the velocity.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betz%27_law

So when you consider a vertical propellor, do you use the wind velocity at the axis? at the top tip? (In theory, you have to do an integral, but that assumes you know the distribution of wind speeds.)

And what do you do about storms? When the winds are too fast, the turbine cuts back on generating power, but what speed is "too much"? Do you design the turbine to handle 90% of the wind or 99% of the wind? You may get twice as much total energy out of the 99% turbine (because the 9% of the time that it is working while the other isn’t, the wind is fast and has lots of energy) but the costs are much greater.

(BTW, recent analysis suggests that the best possible planar (simple propellor-type) turbine can only come away with 30% of the energy in the wind that goes through it.)
http://www.math.le.ac.uk/people/ag153/homepage/Gorlov2001.pdf

It is possible.
First of all you need energy to manufacture anything. If you do correct book keeping regarding where you are getting energy from, it would be possible.
Is it practical? Not today. Today electricity from all sources are delivered to you on a single grid, you will have lot of trouble in figuring out whether your electricity came from coal or gas or solar.

recorded on August 22nd 2009
jim puplava financial sense
Matt Matthew R. Simmons michael jackson
http://www.simmonsco-intl.com
the state of Maine ME sustainability
renewable energy oxymoron offshore giant large wide wind turbine farm ocean energy
nuclear plant electrolysis liquid ammonia NH3 golf bed deep water
United States Senator Susan M. Collins Chellie Pingree Congress John Baldecchi
barnett shale gas field natural carbon footprint megawatt MW crude oil price glut epa toxic aquifer
silicon valley salt drilling rigs Cape Cod nantucket bullion silver gold old dutch windmill Barack Hussein Obama II Barry Soetoro

Duration : 0:8:42

Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: "Natural, ammonia, aquifer, Baldecchi, barnett, bed, bullion, Cape, carbon, Chellie, Cod, Collins, Congress, crude, deep, drilling, electrolysis, energy, epa, Farm, field, financial, Footprint, gas, giant, glut, gold, golf, jackson, jim, John, large, liquid, M., maine, Matt, Matthew, ME, megawatt, michael, MW, nantucket, NH3, nuclear, ocean, of, offshore, oil, oxymoron, Pingree, plant, price, puplava, renewable, rigs, salt, Senator, sense, shale, silicon, silver, Simmons, state, States, Susan, sustainability, the, toxic, turbine, United, Valley, water, wide, wind

This wind turbine is based on the Lenz II design which measures 4 ft tall X 3 ft in diameter.

The parts can be purchased at http://www.WindGenKits.com

It has a 12 magnet, dual rotor alternater with 9 coils. Each coil is 70 turns.

The wing construction is a steel frame made of laser cut ribs with tubular spars and a trailing edge. The ribs fit into notches on the spars and was welded together. The skin is .030″ aluminum that has been fastened with rivets.

The rotating embly spins on a fixed shaft. Bearings and wing spokes are bolted to the center tri-star carrier plates. The wings can be quickly removed and swapped.

Currently this turbine feeds a small bank of 2 GC-110 wet cell batteries wired in series for a 12V system. AC output is provided by a 1500W inverter.

Duration : 0:3:6

Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: alternative, alternator, axial, axis, build, darrieus, darrius, diy, earth, electricity, energy, flux, generator, green, hawt, how, II, Lenz, MAGNET, permanant, piggot, pma, power, RARE, renewable, savonious, savonius, to, turbine, vawt, vertical, wind, WindGenKits, Windturbine

The recently commissioned Centennial Wind Power Facility near Swift Current, SK

83 x Vestas V80 - 1.8MW Wind Turbines

Duration : 0:1:41

Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: energy, green, saskatchewan, turbine, vestas, wind