Wind energy

I had a friend email me last night asking about wind energy solutions. So, let's talk wind. I am not an expert on any of these renewable energy solutions, but I have a growing fascination with them as our energy resources available to recover become less stable as a result of any given political agenda. Renewable energy sources equate to a certain degree of independence and I enjoy that.

So, wind. There are numerous resources available on the internet concerning all renewable energy technologies. For wind, the basic unit seems to run about $1/watt in cost. That does not include batteries for storage, nor does it include the inverter to convert the generated DC voltage into AC voltage so it will be compatible with your house as well as possible tie-in to your local public utility service in order to get credit when you are generating more power than you use. It seems a lot of these wind generators have about a 5 year life-span. That's a recurring number that I have noticed. When comparing this to solar panel solutions, solar panels seem to be selling for $2.5/watt up to $7.0/watt. Solar panel generators have a life span of 20-25 years.

Things to consider: annual wind or sun conditions in your area. Space available for a solar or wind solution. Some homes are situated in areas where daily or regular wind activity is a given. Some homes are situated where the wind is less predictable, but the sun activity is very regular.

It will need to be decided if the house is going to go off the grid and be completely isolated or if the solar or wind energy will be supplemental to the utility power. If off-grid is selected, energy storage batteries will have to be included in the solution. If this is a supplemental solution then a grid tie-in inverter, most of them include this, will have to be included in the solution. Each of these options adds or removes cost to/from the overall solution. As I mentioned earlier in this article, I am still learning a lot about this topic myself, but my goal is to determine just a few viable solutions for friends and family that they can implement at their homes. I'm not in this to "sell" a solution like I've seen on a lot of websites. There are a lot of people out there "selling" do it yourself solutions. They all claim theirs is the best, so I haven't selected any of those resources yet.

If I were to consider building my own simple wind generator supplemental system, the basics needed would include, an automotive high output alternator, some propeller blades, a DC to AC inverter, and a hefty pole to mount the generator on. Also, some car batteries to store the generated energy. The complication associated with this involve safe battery storage and the utility tie-in. This is just a crude overview of options that exist. It will take me more time to investigate DIY or prepackaged solutions available.

I don't know if this helped at all. I hope to provide much more detail and information and even some truly "free" solutions for people right here, real soon. I don't plan to hit anyone with the "buy my video or book or CD for $20-$50 and find out how to do it", line.

Have a great day!
James