How much energy can be harnessed from this source? What is the efficiency of the windmills? Is it really economically feasible? Considering it costs billions to make those windmills.
Sources to websites are appreciated.
Who am I ?
Hi, I’m Erik Astrand and the man behind this site.
My story? I am about to be 50 and all my life I have been interested in technical things. Not sure if the special interest for the wind, and how to use the wind, started when I as a 5 year old boy and got my first sail dinghy.
Anyway, wind power and to build my own wind generator was a dream for several years. I studied many websites and also bought many courses before I finally built my own windmill. This site is about that journey and you will also find some more general articles about wind power.
Enjoy! and check out the about me page to read more.
The Economics of Wind Power are not there. And even then, there are many more issues.
A 1 kW wind turbine costs about $6,000 installed. And you need an average wind speed of 14 mph to make it come even close to paying off. Even then its capacity factor is about 25%, so you only get an average of about 0.25 kW from the wind turbine — which is enough to keep 2 or 3 light bulbs burning — for $6,000 ! A 2.4 kW wind Turbine costs about $18,000 or $20,000. And this 2.4 kW unit, with a 25% capacity factor, probably is not enough to power a normal home
If you have an $80/ month electric bill, your electric cost for 20 years is about $18 to $20,000.
So you are basically "pre-paying" your electric bill for 20 years or more, and hoping the wind turbine lasts that long. It likely won’t. It needs lots of maintenance and repairs.
Then the common sense kicks in. The wind blows sufficiently on warm mild days or in the evenings. Americans need their most Power on Hot days to run air conditioning. The wind is not blowing on "hot days" — that why hot days are "hot" — there is no wind to cool things down. So now you have to build and invest more $$$ in a "back-up" generation plant. This is to produce power on those "hot days" when the wind is not blowing. How else do you run the A/C? So now you still have the need for "normal generation" — a coal plant, a natural gas plant, etc. So you really have not eliminated the need for "normal power generators".
Short run or long run — it does not pan out economically, and does not eliminate the need for natural gas power generation plants. Solar Power is similar as well — not cost effective at all at todays energy and power rates.
We MUST make alternatives !
eventually power will be so expensive many people will be without.
this might happen anyway but wind and solar are fair options, and perhaps the technology will improve.
Right now it is not real good.
It can help a lot. But it depends on the area. For example, one proposal has a lot of wind turbines just offshore providing a significant portion of the power needs of new england.
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its definatly a diy prodject