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Small and Household-size Wind Turbines
- Fantasy Wind Turbines (Read this first.)
- An Open Letter to Inventors by Mick Sagrillo: Specifically to inventors of vertical axis wind turbines and rooftop wind 'technology breakthroughs'
- KXAN: Turbine designer arrested for fraud: Jonestown turbines were deemed not viable--A series of wind turbines planned for the city of Jonestown is on hold after criminal charges were filed against one of the designers. . . Charlie Malouff, the founder of the C.M Energies, has been arrested on charges of securing execution of a document by deception. C.M. Energies is the Taylor-based company which produces the wind turbines. . .
- Energy Ball--A Review--I've been putting off writing anything about the "Energy Ball" simply because there are too many of these "inventions" for one person to track, analyze, and report on. Like many of these contraptions, and that's the best I can say about such devices, it's a distraction from more serious endeavors.
- Stirring Up a Hornet's Nest: New Turbine Generates Controversy
- US Wind Turbine--Heavy on the Hype
This category started as a joke when Mike Nelson forwarded a photograph of a poorly installed wind turbine in Seattle. Mike is an old hand at renewables and like Stewart Russell knows a good installation--and a bad one--when he sees it. Since Mike's first report, others have followed and now the list is continuing to grow.
- Kansas Worst Turbine Install--The following is another submission by Stewart Russell for the worst turbine install in history. This one is on a bridge in Kansas City and uses two of Southwest Windpower's Air series turbines. As Stewart points out, the turbines are behind the solar panels. . .
- Mariah In the Running for Worst Small Turbine Install--You have to give them credit, small turbine manufacturers are a competitive lot, especially small VAWT suppliers. They are tripping over themselves to see who can win the award for worst turbine install. . .
- Worst Turbine Install in History?--Mike Nelson call this the worst turbine install in history. It certainly ranks right up there with some recent installations by Mariah, a Vertical-Axis Wind Turbine manufacturer. . .
- Urban Turbines: What Are They and What Makes Sense--Urban wind turbines. The image is immediately appealing. Most people live in cities. Most people want to use wind and solar energy. Thus, there must be ways for those living in cities-urbanites-to use wind energy. . . Indeed, there is. It is being done all the time. Using commercial-scale wind turbines, community groups, municipal governments, and municipal utilities throughout the world install wind turbines within city limits. . .
- Cleveland's Urban Wind Turbine--Cleveland's Great Lakes Science Center installed a 225 kW Vestas V27 wind turbine in 2006 on the city's harbor front between the Cleveland Brown's football stadium and the science museum. . .
- Urban Wind Energy A Review by Paul Gipe--I feared the worst when I saw the title. As an outspoken critic of so-called "Urban" wind and especially the British variety, I thought the book would be destined for the dust bin after the first page. But I was wrong--and not the first time. The adage should be not to judge a book by its title. In this case there was enough in the book about what I call real urban wind to keep me reading. . .
- Boston Museum of Science holds conference on small rooftop wind turbine project
- DyoCore and Why the Rating of Small Turbines Remains a Black Art--Despite my best efforts, I've been dragged into the DyoCore flap here in California. . . I can't stay on the sidelines any longer. (Isn't there someone else out there qualified to debunk all these "inventions" that plague us?)
- Honneywell Windtronics Photos--These are photos of the Honneywell Windtronics turbine on display at a vendors booth at the CanSIA exhibition in Toronto, December 5, 2011. . .
- Windsor Star: Frustrated turbine firm scales back Windsor production--Windtronics Inc. has scaled back production of small residential and commercial wind turbines at its Windsor plant because incentives for such projects have not yet been included in the province's Green Energy Act, says the president of the Michigan-based company. . .
- Consumer Reports Tackles Honneywell Windtronics--So far, a new wind turbine delivers little . . . Generous federal and local rebates and credits have helped put wind power on a growing list of options that use the forces of nature to trim your electricity bill. But our early tests of one wind turbine suggest that you could save far less than the manufacturer claims—and wait decades for your investment to pay for itself. . .
- Windtronics Turbine Removed from French Test Site--A Honneywell Windtronics wind turbine under test at SEPEN in southern France was removed within the first month of operation, according to Jay Hudnall, an expert in the French small wind turbine industry. . .
- Honneywell Windtronics Wind Tunnel Comments--Because of my early postings (December 30, 2008) about the Honneywell Windtronics turbine, other observers have been sending me their comments on the product. Chris Pollard, a mechanical engineer and an expert in fans for cooling computers, brought to my attention Windtronics' claim that the turbine was tested in a wind tunnel. This may be an exaggeration. . .
- Honneywell Windtronics Update on Recommendation for 12 mph Sites--After posting my article Honneywell Windtronics WT6500 Report from the Field, the president of the company contacted me to note that their web site clearly says that they recommend using the turbine only at sites with a 12 mph average annual wind speed. . .
- Honneywell Windtronics WT6500 Report from the Field--Retired civil engineer Lynn Shafer wants to do the right thing and leave the world a better place for future generations. In 2010 he installed 5 kW of solar PV on his house near Sedalia, Missouri. There's not a lot of solar PV in Missouri, the "show me state" and when Shafer installed his system the local paper published a page one spread on the project. So he expected that installing a small wind turbine would be equally rewarding. That's where Shafer went wrong. . .
- Earthtronic's Honeywell Windtronics WT 6500--A Review--Lest the Honeywell name lend some kind of legitimacy to the WT 6500 note that the Honeywell trademark is simply used under license. Tellingly, "Honeywell International Inc. makes no representation or warranties with respect to this product."
- More on Honeywell's Windtroncis turbine: Search for The Honeywell Windgate RT6500 wind turbine--This turbine has been included on this webpage as an example of how careful a potential buyer of a small turbine must be when faced with a manufacturer's claims about their wind turbine performance. It is a good illustration of how important it is that turbines should be subjected to a proper accreditation process. . .
- Britain's Energy Savings Trust Finds Small Wind Turbines Perform Poorly in Tests--The field trials monitored 57 small turbines for an entire year, the world's largest effort at monitoring machines of this size say the reports authors. . .
- Warwick Wind Trials Gives Failing Grade to Rooftop Wind--If further proof is needed that mounting wind turbines on rooftops is a bad idea, the final report on the Warwick Wind Trials is it.
- New US Rooftop Wind Turbine Lab (Boston): The Boston, Massachusetts, Museum of Science, is installing a rooftop Wind Turbine Lab in the summer of 2009.
- Wind Turbines at the Boston Museum of Science: Production Data & Observations by Ben Polito on Proven, Southwest Windpower Skystream, Mariah Windspire & Cascade Engineering Swift wind turbines atop the Boston Museum of Science. . .
- Wind turbines at Boston's Museum of Science by Ben Polito--It was interesting to compare the behavior of the various turbines. . .
- The Folly of Building-Integrated Wind by Alex Wilson, BuildingGreen.com--A thorough analysis of the concept by an experienced renewable energy journalist.
- Aerovironment's AVX 1000 Rooftop Turbines at Logan Airport
- Building Integrated Wind
- Urban Wind Field Trials in Great Britain
- Small-scale Wind Energy
Policy insights and practical guidance by Britain's Carbon Trust (pdf, 1.66mb)
- Small-scale Wind Energy
Technical Report by Britain's Carbon Trust (pdf, 5.72mb)
- Rooftop Wind Turbines at Montreal's Biosphere
- Unsubstantiated Claims of Rooftop Wind Turbines (An Open Letter by Hugh Piggott)
- Roof Top Wind in Inaction
- Robert Dreeszen's Roof Mounted Wind Turbines
- Roof Top Windsave in Scotland
- Roof Top Over the Top in Britain
- Stewart Russell's commentary on Windsave.--Stewart knows what he's talking about. He's a pro.
- Swift Turbine Specs Look Dubious by Stewart Russell
- Andy Mahoney's Rooftop Mounting Failure
- Wind Speed Measurement over a roof top in Edinburgh, Scotland by Hugh Piggott
- The case (or not) for Roof Mounted Wind Turbines by Nick Martin
- Rooftop Mounting of Wind Turbines
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The early days. Paul Gipe sitting on a crate of wind turbines after returning from a salvage operation to Montana in the mid-1970s. |
For testing of small wind turbines and for all around helpfulness on the subject of wind energy no one beats the Alternative Energy Institute at West Texas A&M University. The Folkecenter for Renewable Energy is a long-standing reference source on the success of Electricity Feed Laws and Community Wind development in Europe. The Midwestern Renewable Energy Association has long been an ardent proponent of renewables, not just wind energy, in Wisconsin.
Alternative Energy Institute
www.windenergy.org
Nordvestjysk Folkecenter for Vedvarende Energi (Folkecenter for Renewable Energy)
www.folkecenter.dk
Midwest Renewable Energy Association
www.the-mrea.org/
For tips on the design of small wind turbines visit the sites of Scoraig Wind Electric's Hugh Piggott, www.scoraigwind.co.uk, and Windmission's Claus Nybroe, www.windmission.dk.
If you need parts, service, or advice on how to maintain your small wind turbine, you can subscribe to the yahoogroup small-wind-home. There are several knowledgeable participants on this list who offer a wealth of technical information. Once you've subscribed, monitor the list, then, when you're ready, post your question.
There is also a discussion group on small wind turbines (petit eoliens) in French at http://fr.groups.yahoo.com/group/petit-eolien/.
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