Wind turbine?

[telboy]

Does anyone out there have or know anything about wind turbines.

We are in the campo, it is virtually impossible to getting any more than our 1.2Kw allocation without forking out a huge sum of money to Sevillana.

I read an article somewhere in a UK mag that as well as getting planning permission, an installation would cost about 2,500 pounds for a generator of 600w capacity in the UK.

Is planning permission needed here?

[peteroldracer]

Couple of years back I researched all I could find about wind turbines. Maybe things have altered, but at that time if you took the cost of the turbine and tower, planning licences, installation costs and maintenance, amortised those over the estimated (no guarantees!!) ten-year life of the machinery, your electricity costs were approximately three times the dearest tariff from a supplier using conventional means. Like so many "green" things, it is easy to be blinded to reality!

[robperrie]

go for solar then,,,its always sunny,,

[hillybilly]

Contact Grupo RCL nr Ronda - Edwin who runs the place has several wind turbines up and running you can see in action, sells them and will give you all the advice you need. He also does solar and gennies.

[alaninspain]

I thought a gennie was a lady donkey. Congratulations to that man for diversifying in business.

[House in Vejer]

Hi I live with panels and a wind turbine and to be honest the wind turbine is a waste of time. Its 400watts but only produces this if it´s a VERY windy day. The rest of the time even on breezy days it produces under 25% of this.
Put your money into more panels instead.

[robperrie]

thats true, i have a wind turbine and it comes in affect when its cloudy and during winter, but panels are a better bet and a turbine jus as a add on, prices are coming down soon for solar panels(PV)...

[peteroldracer]

One day someone will publish the true figures for the giant ones already scarring land- and sea-scapes all over, and reveal that they are a political ploy, not a way of producing power efficiently.
Experts - you are needed!!

[Retro P]

Well, according to my missus (and little peachy) I generate a lot of hot air doesn't seem to save me any money though

[Don]

To get back to the question, there is quite a lot of useful info on small wind turbines at http://www.bettergeneration.co.uk/wind- ... bines.html

At the domestic scale it is possible to get to kW generation if you have the airflow but that is way short of the MW generation for the big turbines. I am afraid PV technology does not really yet compete in terms of power output unless you have a spare field and the investment is still way higher per unit electricity output.

Solar hot water is basically cost effective in Andalucia but I know many who would still opt for a diesel stanby gen set either to supplement the mains electric supply or as a back up to a wind gen set.

Andalucia does host the worlds largest solar power platform at www.solucar.es where the second tower plant is just being topped out now. They use 3 different solar technologies to produce grid electricity and I do find the solar tower and heliostat field more aesthetically pleasing than a hillside of wind turbines but we really do need a portfolio of technologies for the grid supply for better continuity of supply.

I think the most telling technical fact is that it is far easier and cheaper to reduce electricity consumption than to generate electricity.