Bringing Wind Power Down To Earth
There’s been a lot of energy behind wind power these days, with talk of larger and more dramatic installations every week. But this may leave you wondering, what does it have to do with me? Would I ever want one of these giant towers in my backyard or on my business? Noble though the idea is, for many, this is not an appealing or feasible option, due to space limitations or code restrictions. But then you may wonder, would a micro turbine make a notable dent in my energy needs?
Last week while at the Green California Summit, I saw a beautiful and practical solution to this: Helix Wind. With its elegant, rippled white shape, and the ability to work with any wind greater then 4.5 mph, requiring only 14 feet in height, these turbines bring it all home, literally.
How much power do they bring? 1KW for personal, 2KW for businesses, enough to meet as much as half your energy needs. There’s no need to have a battery to store the power generated as in solar panels, as “net metering,” or power metering that accounts for energy put back into the grid as well as what’s used, can be used as credit towards your energy costs.
There are many micro turbines out there, but none has the unique undulating helix form of this. So? Beyond being aesthetically interesting, this enables it to catch air from any direction, more efficiently, with less needed. The unique shape apparently is also, they claim, completely safe for birds - one of the stumbling blocks to greater implementation of such devices. Silencing other critics is the fact that it’s, well, silent in operation.
Now what about cost, rebates? While not yet as prevalent as the ones for solar (have a look at the DSIRE site for a fine resource for local, state, and federal renewables incentives of all sorts) there are some generous ones happening right now. For example, the Emerging Renewables Program in California gives $1.50-$2.50/watt on systems, up to 30 KW. That’s thousands even for the smallest of Helix Wind’s systems.
To see them in action, have a look at this, below:
So, is wind right for you or your business? With systems such as Helix Wind’s, it’s looking more and more so every day.
Readers: What’s been your experience with wind power? Have any suggestions, hints, tips, products you like? Please share, below.
Additional resources:
Wind Boom Creates Rural Jobs in Texas
Micro turbina eólica para uso doméstico . Produce el 50% de la energia diaria necesaria [ENG]…
Una empresa americana ha desarrollado la ‘Helix Wind’, una microturbina eólica que puedes poner en el tejado de tu casa. Necesita sólo unos 6,5 km/h de viento para funcionar, no necesita baterías y es capaz de producir la mitad de la energía de u…
Wow, some heated discussion there! Thanks Ian for your input and clarification on this.
That said, are there any actual wind turbine owners out there who can share their experience with wind power? Have any suggestions, hints, tips, products you like?
As an energy researcher, my prior research shows a typical American consumes about 2.5kWh on average, with 10-12 kw peaks, so a 1KW turbine would offset a good amount of grid power demand.
No one is being bilked. If you don’t agree that tax policy should be used by YOUR elected representatives to incent tax payers to use less fossil fuel energy then engage in the political process. I’m sure they’ll be happy to listen to your pithy argument that we should as a nation continue down our present path.
So how much is the dang thing?
Can one install as a dyi? or is a contractor needed.?
Thanks
Excellent question! On the Products page it would seem to be the place to list it, but it’s absent. Here, from the discussion about the article on reddit, is what the CEO said:
“Currently, small wind is about 1/2 the cost of solar (HelixWind is $3.33-$4.00/watt installed, solar is about $7.95/watt installed). After rebates, in California, HelixWind is $1.66-$2.33/watt installed, solar is about $4.25. That being said, the cost of solar (and also with small wind) will likely decrease in the future as production capacity comes online. For solar there is a global silicon shortage which makes price drops unlikely for at least another year unless a different manufacturing tech comes online. Small wind doesn’t face the same materials shortages. However the big differentiator between the two technologies, which often goes unspoken, is the footprint. A HelixWind 5kW rated system has a footprint of 6 sq. ft. or so, the equivalent solar system requires 750 sq. ft., which can create permitting and siting difficulties when you get to arrays that large.”
That, and all the rest, are at http://reddit.com/info/6g9rg/comments/
Ian (the CEO) seems like an friendly enough guy. I’d just write and ask. And perhaps encourage them to post prices. It’s been asked a few different times, here, on reddit, on digg…
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When I was researching a vertical residential turbine, the issue that came up constantly was the height of the turbine. Wind experts were citing a physics argument as to why this particular turbine would not work as stated. In addition, they told me lower speed winds did not seem to amount to much energy being produced. Both my experts cautioned me to obtain third party verification of output and energy produced.
I would be curious what Ian’s answer would be to their arguments. Anna http://www.green-talk.com
Hi Anna, you raise excellent points and in fact anyone considering buying a small wind turbine should make sure that the output has been independently verified by a third party. We have done this to confirm the efficiency of our turbines (see the video to be posted shortly on YouTube and our website). What you find when you look across the small wind turbine spectrum is that all of them fall within a fairly narrow range of efficiency, about 7 percentage points overall. The biggest contributor to annual output is the amount of swept area (amount of blade area intercepting the wind) that can be attached to the generator at any given mounting height, and of course, average annual wind speed.
Your experts are also right about there not being much power produced at low wind speeds, however this has little to do with the Helix design and more to do with the physics of the amount of power available in the wind. You need at least 7m/s average wind speed at hub height for Helix units to be worthwhile (assuming you’re paying $0.15/kWh or more). Below that our product just isn’t a good investment for you. If anyone is claiming they can generate significant power below 5m/s you should definitely ask to see there 3rd party validated data…in fact, I’d like to see it too :-).
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