Small wind turbines encompass a broad range of wind turbines from micro turbines, to mini turbines, to household-size turbines. Wind turbines in these size classes may have power ratings from a few watts to dozens of kW. Internationally, this category includes wind turbines up to 15 meters (49 feet) in diameter. Wind turbines of this size may have power ratings from 50 to 100 kW.
While ducted or shrouded wind turbines and Vertical Axis Wind Turbines can be of any size, they are listed here because they are outside the mainstream of the commercial wind industry.
I receive a fair amount of mail of the “What do you think of this” variety. Often it’s a quick push of the delete key and I am off about my business. Occasionally I’ve been known to go “Hmm” and...[more]
A waterfront lantern festival powered by a 'wind tree' was the last gasp for a failing business. In the final in a three-part series, Jonathan Milne reports how Evan Price's chickens came home to...
With the exception of FloDesign/Ogin, shrouded turbines have fallen out of favor with inventors as well as the media. The buzz in 2013 was all about kites or as their promoters prefer to call them...[more]
The world record for the longest 'kite fly' is 180 hours.[more]
Ron Swenson, an old hand at solar and electric vehicles reached out to me after I mentioned Sky Sails when I railed against a thoughtless article in the Guardian about a bladeless wind turbine. Turns...[more]
The turbine, which whirls on Outer Main Street across from Maxcy Hall, was engineered by Ducted Wind Turbines, founded by Clarkson professor Kenneth Visser.
Elser said the scam was years in the making and a working ducted wind turbine prototype was never built. Instead, Davis and Ridings misrepresented engineers' opinions about the concept to scam...
On 26 June 2019 the Raleigh, North Carolina News & Observer reported that James Allen Rowan of Mag-Wind fame appeared in federal court in an orange jump suit to stand trial for fraud.[more]
As a subscriber to the Guardian newspaper I nearly choked on my coffee at 4.30 in the morning last week while I was scrolling through my news feed. I stumbled on Bladeless turbines could bring wind...[more]
Bruce Hatchett of Pacific Solar & Wind gave me a call a few weeks ago to tell me they were installing a Bergey 15 kW wind turbine in Tehachapi, wondering if I wanted to get some photos of it. “I...[more]
On 21 November Thilo Wirth visited the Grevenbroich test site west of Cologne and took several photos of the damaged Agile Wind Power's Vertical Sky 32.[more]
Small-Scale Renewable Energy Systems is a slim 210-page book on hybrid renewable projects by Swedish authors Sven Ruin and Göran Sidén.[more]
Small-Scale Renewable Energy Systems is a slim 210-page book on hybrid renewable projects by Swedish authors Sven Ruin and Göran Sidén.[more]
Swiss VAWT Vertical Sky 32 lost one of its three rotor arms and blade Sunday 15 November at the Grevenbroich test site according to German media. The prototype turbine was installed at the test site...[more]
This week, a 13-year experiment in harnessing wind power using kites and modified gliders finally closes down for good.
I've received a portion of Intertek's 2016 power performance test of Ogin's Model 2.2 150-kW ducted wind turbine "over the transom" as we say. The much hyped and controversial device delivered its...[more]
Flamboyant ducted wind turbine venture Ogin died a costly death in 2017, taking with it hundreds of millions in investments. The debacle tarnished the reputations of Technology Review, Arpa (DOE's...[more]
The US Department of Energy (DOE) announced 19 November 2019 that the Distributed Wind Competitiveness Improvement Project had awarded a grant to Ducted Turbines of Potsdam, New York for nearly...[more]
Yep, it's still there. Derelict and long abandoned, the FloDesign-Ogin prototype ducted wind turbine is still standing in the Antelope Valley between I-5 and Lancaster and north of Hwy 138.[more]
Cheaper turbine models, possible demand from the growing microgrid market, and an intensifying focus on distributed energy resources in general may all contribute to putting some wind back in the...
According to the complaint, Stimm raised more than $3.5 million from 435 investors in WNY over the years, utilizing illegal sales and false and misleading statements.
The turbine started spinning on Dec. 17, providing power to nearby buildings, according to the Bronx Times.
A wind turbine collapsed in the Bronx on Monday, setting off a frightening series of events.
Thilo Wirth was working in the LVR building the Cologne district of Köln-Deutz and sent me his cell-phone picture of the Clean VerTec wind turbine on the roof. [more]
An MIT student's defense of urban ducted wind turbines.
Alan Grimsley, Director of Business Development of White Electrical is seeking to buy a Honeywell Windtronics 6500. Grimsley wants the device for experimentation.[more]
In research for his new book, Vaughn Nelson is turning up a number of fascinating videos. One he found is a video of Heidelberg Motor's H-rotor operating in Germany. The VAWT was unusual in that the...[more]
In the research for his new book, Vaughn Nelson has been dredging up some amazing videos. (See Hywind Scotland Floating Offshore Wind Turbine Video.) [more]
In another sign of the times, I've closed Wulf Field and sold the property to the neighboring wind farm managed by Windstream Properties.[more]
While deleting some old files--yes, I am one of those who deletes unnecessary files--I came across two photos I meant to post in 2018.[more]
Davis was CEO of Dragonfly Industries International, LLC, which sought to build a wind farm on 300 acres near in Elm Springs for electric power generation in 2015.
It is uncertain if the Company’s efforts (i) to address its cash constraints and its legal difficulties with Comerica and/or (ii) to effect one or more strategic transactions will be successful.
The French offshore Vertical-Axis Wind Turbine developer Nénuphar closed its doors in early 2018. Their web site is dark, though there are several Nenuphar Animations on YouTube.com.[more]
One of the conclusions then is no doubt true today: "There is no well established relationship between Darrieus wind turbine prototype costs and volume production costs because only one company,...[more]
The report was prepared by Lawrence Schienbein Associates, Kennewick, Washington.[more]
Elsevier has published an extensive survey of attempts at building commercial Vertical-Axis Wind Turbines on its digital platform. The print version of the survey by Swedish academic Erik Möllerström...[more]
Since the 1970s, there have been several VAWT projects with installed turbines of significant size, either as attempts to commercialize VAWTs, or as university led research projects, or as a...
Sheerwind-Invelox, a ducted-turbine fiasco, officially went bust in early 2018. Incredibly, there are a number of promotional videos still on line at youtube.com and on vimeo. The latter is even more...[more]
While poking around on the Internet to see if anything new had popped up on some of my favorite ducted turbine projects I came across some videos of FloDesign-Ogin that I hadn't seen before.[more]
James Rowan, whose wind turbine venture attracted the attention of celebrities, now awaits extradition to the U.S. to be tried on fraud-related charges.
I've been alerted to an error in the second edition of Wind Power (2004): Renewable Energy for Home Farm and Business.[more]
In 1980 the Department of Energy published a short film titled Wind: An Energy Alternative. The 12-minute film was produced by the Solar Energy Research Institute (SERI) probably in 1979.[more]
I've added several rare photos and scans Vaughn Nelson found in his files from the 1970s. Nelson, one of the wind industry's pioneers, has an extensive collection of experimental wind turbines from...[more]
I've added a new page on photos of historical Vertical-Axis Wind Turbines to include VAWTPower Management's prototypes at Clines Corner, New Mexico.[more]
Since 2010 the small wind industry in North America has been in steep decline. First Congress turned its back on the industry in the United States. Then the descent accelerated with the rapid fall in...[more]
A wind farm comprised of 432 vertical-axis wind turbines on the coast of Changhua County’s Fangyuan Township (芳苑) has become the county’s latest tourist attraction. The turbines look like egg...
Presentation for CORE Energy Summit in Winnipeg, Manitoba 12 April 2018.
What's up with Canada? I've gotten two enquiries from the Great White North about Bluenergy Solarwind, a US company claiming to have developed another vertical-axis wind turbine (VAWT).[more]
4 April the transfer of remaining copies of Wind Energy for the Rest of Us to a new distributor was completed.[more]
Celebrities like former Tonight Show host Jay Leno and actor Ed Begley Jr. endorsed the Canadian entrepreneur's product. Rowan was making national headlines with his invention. But skeptics wondered...
One of the UK’s best-known and most iconic small-scale wind companies, Gaia-Wind, has been forced into provisional liquidation and the company and outside observers are highlighting government...
Yesterday trade organisation RenewableUK added its voice, calling government decision-making a “key factor” in the fall of one of the sector’s “best-known and most iconic companies”. The Feed-In...
Gaia-Wind, which celebrated the roll-out of its 1000th device from Glasgow last April, has appointed a provisional liquidator. The company moved its operations to Scotland from Denmark seven years...
Sex sells. Always has, always will. Sex has been used to sell beer, cars, and even wind energy--well, at least articles about wind energy.[more]
CGE Energy recently issued a press release applauding the US Congress for extending tax subsidies to small wind turbines. The press release also touts CGE's Darrieus wind turbine, the Wind-e 20.[more]
The 1992 report on the project by the Centre de Recherche Energétiques et Municpales reads like so many of the others from the period. In short, the four-year project was a failure for a host of...[more]
Wind historian extraordinaire Etienne Rogier sent me a carte postale (post card) promoting a 1988 French postage stamp. The card depicts the postage stamp and an experimental Darrieus turbine.[more]
The turbines ran for three months before one blade fell to the ground 190 feet below. Then a second blade crashed through a nearby storage building's roof, falling into a conference room. No one was...
Daryoush Allaei extolling the wonders of his device in his native land. Note the location of the device--down below the ridge on which they are standing. Also notice that there are some real wind...
The Nature Conservancy (TNC), one of the nation's premier land preservation trusts, isn't talking about its failed investment in a ducted wind turbine debacle 1,000 miles from Hawaii.[more]
The following are comments to Another Ducted Device Dead: SheerWind-Invelox Bankrupt. They were so insightful I decided to repost them here where they are more easily archived.[more]
My inbox saw a flurry of emails 4 January 2018 to inform me that ducted turbine darling SheerWind-Invelox was bankrupt. While the event wasn't much of a surprise, it did take much longer than I'd...[more]
Someone sent me a link to a YouTube video titled Abandoned Vertical Axis Windmill In The Magdalen Islands.[more]
Even though the blades appear curved, each is made of 11 sections with hinged connections. The rotor will be limited to about 80 rpm by using several aviation-style airbrakes in the center sections...
I pay a price for debunking various wind turbine flim-flams and posting critiques on my web site. Consequently, I am cursed to be listed by Google and Indian call centers as the person to call if a...[more]
In response to a query from a Swedish researcher, I’ve posted eight historic photos of the Adecon Darrieus wind turbine to my web site. See Adecon under Vertical Axis Wind Turbines (VAWTs) in the...[more]
Small Vertical-Axis Wind Turbines (VAWTs) come and go so fast no one can keep track of them before they become history.[more]
I’d seen a reference to the technical paper, Optimization of a vertical axis wind turbine for application in an urban/suburban area, by two academics making the rounds but didn’t take much notice of...[more]
Yes, I’ve written about this subject once before, Everything You Need to Know about Wind Energy Was Written in 1957!, but I am moving the date back thirty years in the light of more research. The...[more]
Largely forgotten today, Georges Jean Marie Darrieus was one of France’s great engineers. While he is mostly known in the English-speaking world for his patent on vertical-axis wind turbines (VAWTs),...[more]
Oh the ways of the wind. It blows where it will--or something to that effect. We were on our way to pick cherries. That’s a fairly innocuous activity. From Bakersfield we had to cross the Antelope...[more]
The Chaska, Minnesota promoter of a ducted wind turbine appears to have fallen on hard times. The fabric covering of the intake duct for their demonstration turbine is torn and in disrepair and the...[more]
York University’s International Renewable Energy Academy designated 29 June as the “wind day” on their week-long program. [more]
I have a Casella CEL-464 professional-grade sound level meter for sale. I used the unit during the early 2000s to measure the noise emissions from small wind turbines.[more]
The onslaught of super-dooper new windmill inventions is never ending. Frankly it’s wearing out us old timers. We can’t keep up with the damn things. We try to ignore them but our friends and...[more]
Ogin raised more than $150 million in funding — even attracting the attention of former Vice President Al Gore, now a senior partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers, one of the company’s earliest...
Four years after a federal grand jury in Raleigh, North Carolina returned a two-count indictment against James Alan Rowan for his fraudulent wind turbine investments, the fugitive was caught in...[more]
Among all those who lost money in the FloDesign-Ogin fiasco is the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Compared to others the state lost a relatively modest amount of $3 million.[more]
Urban environments are challenging locations for small wind turbines. Moreover, the sector must deal with cases of small turbines poorly sited and installed by companies that are more interested in...
The work within this thesis is made in collaboration between Halmstad University and Uppsala University. A 200-kW semi-guy-wired VAWT H-rotor, owned by Uppsala University but situated in Falkenberg...
James Alan Rowan was apprehended in Saskatoon, where his parents live. A Saskatoon judge committed him to be extradited to the U.S. to face two fraud charges filed against him amid allegations he...
New Zealand’s Superannuation Fund has written down its $47.5 million (NZ) investment in ducted turbine promoter Ogin. [more]
In June 2016 the Ogin Board of Directors and management mutually agreed to separate. At that point we wrote the Fund’s NZ$47.5 million investment down to nil, and that was included in our annual...
Keynote presentation to the 2017 Small Wind Conference 11 April in Minneapolis, Minnesota.[more]
Bergey Windpower, an American manufacturer of small wind turbines for residential and commercial applications, recently announced a new product, the Excel 15 wind turbine.
The Small Wind Conference has chosen Paul Gipe as its keynote speaker for its 2017 conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Calling Gipe “legendary” for his four decades writing about wind energy, the...[more]
Is the end near for SheerWind’s Invelox ducted wind turbine? The problems with SheerWind’s design are coming to a head as its signature clients lose faith.[more]
Despite its previous association with a questionable wind turbine and its promoter, Clarkson University announced that the school in upstate New York has transferred ducted wind turbine technology...[more]
Honeywell WindTronics may be dead but that doesn’t stop others from spinning the WindTronics hype. [more]
“The province gave the company $2.7 million to open in Windsor — under one condition. The company promised there would be 200 workers in the plant by the end of this year. That is now very unlikely,”...[more]
Endurance Wind Power filed for bankruptcy sometime around early November and placed under trust with Grant Thonrton, after its bank called in its loan.
The $107,516 spires stand immobile more than two months after they were erected and more than a year after the city council approved them.
SeaTwirl has already installed a 30-kW prototype floating offshore wind turbine at Lysekil and it wants to build a full-scale machine, SeaTwirl S2, by 2020.
FloDesign’s prototype ducted wind turbine on Deer Island in Boston Harbor is being removed, according the agency that operates the nearby sewage treatment plant.[more]
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) concludes in a new report that rooftop-mounted and building-integrated wind turbines are a failure, though readers would be hard pressed to find that...[more]
Cleanfield made a big media splash in Ontario, Canada during the mid-2000s with its claim of producing a new wind turbine suited for mounting on buildings. [more]
Makani Airborne Wind Energy Turbine (AWT) hasn't been in the news lately. They arrived in a flurry of press in 2013 as the next big thing from Google. The device is a powered kite tethered to the...[more]
There’s no better example of ignorance, hype, and hubris by people with more money at their disposal than their knowledge of energy when the government of Ontario funded Cleanfield Energy, a small...[more]
Vertical axis wind turbine design to be tested soon
Turns out, the wind tree is actually worse than initially thought.
Former employees of the erstwhile ducted turbine manufacturer Ogin have posted comments about their jobs on a public web site.[more]
More photos of the Ogin ducted wind turbine dismantlement have been “thrown over my transom.” These close-up photos show far more detail of the disassembly and scrapping process than before.[more]
French aerodynamicist Stéphan Aubin sent in a photo of Vertical-Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT) near the port of Siacca while he was vacationing in southern Italy.[more]
Controversial developer of “urban” wind projects Urban Green Energy (UGE) is quitting the wind business. Using its in-house designed vertical-axis wind turbine, the New York City-based company...[more]
The highly hyped ducted wind turbines near Palm Springs have been removed. The Ogin turbines were removed sometime this summer.[more]
Britain, with one-fifth the population of the USA, installed 560 MW of wind generating capacity in distributed applications from 2010 through 2015. This represents more than three times the MW per...[more]
After a long delay, Denmark is poised to reintroduce a new Feed-in Tariff (FIT) program for small wind turbines. The previous program had been suspended when it reached its cap. The new program cuts...[more]
Later this year Georgia Power Company, a part of the Southern Company, is installing three small wind turbines as a demonstration. Is this newsworthy? Is it significant in any way?[more]
It went by various incarnations, but it was founded as Windtamer by one Gerald Brock and it finally and officially is gone.[more]
This is the way to do small wind right. "When Hurricane Joaquin affected the East Coast the first week of October 2015, the two wind turbines, which were selected for their ability to withstand...
That this turbine was doomed to fail—and would give small wind another—and unneeded—black eye was obvious from the beginning—for anyone who had the desire to know.[more]
Sven Ruin brought to my attention the test summary report on Solid Wind's 14-meter diameter, 25 kW wind turbine. The report was issued in mid-2015.[more]
San Francisco’s greenest city office building isn’t quite as successful as city officials had hoped.
The good news is that with a smaller font size and tighter leading (the space between lines) than in my previous books, Holm has been able to substantially reduce the number of printed pages from...[more]
Watch the little wind turbine at Burlington Electric Department and you’ll find, as often as not, its blades are stock-still.
Big step in the long road to publishing my new book: Wind Energy for the Rest of Us. Today I assigned the ISBN numbers to the digital and print version. Each version of the book has its own distinct...[more]
The recorded small wind capacity installed worldwide has reached more than 830 MW as of the end of 2014. This is a growth of 10,9 % compared with 2013, when 749 MW registered. In 2012, 678 MW were...
We took a chance when we bought our Tesla, and it’s paying off because our power comes from the wind. Our residential sized turbine captures wind from Lake Superior in Upper Michigan and fuels our...
I've finally taken the time to post some pictures from my career in renewable energy and energy policy. Some date from 1976, possibly earlier. My memory of those days is fuzzy as they say.[more]
I am writing this now to close the book on this sad little turbine and the whole “let’s put them on the roof” phenomenon. Stumbling across an obscure NREL field test report from long ago (see Power...[more]
Ogin, the Massachusetts-based ducted turbine company, has installed six of seven turbines in the San Gorgonio Pass near Palm Springs, California.[more]
Wind Energy for the Rest of Us by Paul Gipe straddles two—or more—worlds. The book is about wind energy. It’s not just about small wind turbines. It’s not just about large wind turbines. It’s about...[more]
Andringa said that Japan had the most attractive feed-in tariff (FiT) worldwide and that the company's local reselling partners were preparing to help deliver the shift from nuclear to renewable...
A prototypye vertical axis wind turbine is set to go into operations at the Iowa Lakes Community College Farm Laboratory. - See more at:...
In sum, another story of ill-advised “development” of a revolutionary Darrieus wind turbine with all the attendant hubris and hype. The sad saga cost the government of Quebec $350,000—money that...[more]
The capacity factor for solar PV was about 10% and that for small wind turbines about twice that of solar PV at about 20%.[more]
“Secondly caps to the number of turbines which can be built, hidden in the detail of the review, mean, for example, that just three 50-100kW machines and three 1,500kW machines can be deployed every...
Let this be a warning to you skeptics, critics, and debunkers of new-fangled wind turbine flim flam. It will come home to haunt you. Are you listening Mick Sagrillo?[more]
According to a recent presentation by Danish Small Wind Association there are 1,000 wind turbines less than 25 kW in capacity installed in Denmark, representing a total of 8.6 MW. Small wind turbines...[more]
This study assesses the feasibility and performance of micro-wind turbines installed at different hub heights at the Toronto and Region Conservation’s Living City Campus wind field test in Vaughan,...
Visiting Indiana in the summer of 2015, I drove up to Fort Wayne to see my friends John & Cindy Ewing and suggested we check out the museum. The museum has greatly expanded their collections since...
More than 3,000 people have signed a petition calling on the government to support small and medium-sized wind projects in the UK.
What the photos clearly show is that the prototype has abandoned the lobed mixer-ejector feature that was the hallmark of the design—and the justification for the hype that this turbine would be the...[more]
Costing about $400,000 to purchase and install, the four wind turbines at Rim of the World High School may end up being just an expensive piece of modern art.
By now everyone has seen the fawning news accounts—several times, no doubt—that a US company has installed two wind turbines inside—yes, inside—the Eiffel Tower.[more]
The planned remuneration is 0,33 € per kilowatt-hour (kWh) for units up to 10 Kilowatt (kW) and 0,20 €/kWh for up to 25 kW.
The Government has been urged to make urgent changes to the Feed-in Tariff after a new RenewableUK report revealed an alarming 77% drop in the number of new small-scale wind turbines.
Yes, there’s a wind turbine in San Francisco Bay. It’s probably one of only two commercial wind turbines in all of Marin County. Yes, it’s in a state park too. It’s been there for more than three...[more]
Boston and the communities around Boston Harbor have more commercial wind turbines than the entire San Francisco Bay, including one 1.5 MW wind turbine within Boston's urban core. Yes, it's a real...[more]
The U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has issued a notice providing new performance and quality standards that require certification of small wind turbines in order to qualify for the 30% federal...
Wind into the Grid by Günther Hacker is an E-book in English about his experience trying to use a small wind turbine for his home in Germany.[more]
An E-book by Günther Hacker in German is ideal for home wind experiments. Science teachers with a modicum of German will find it a font of simple wind devices that can be made from craft materials.[more]
I also went to the vendor’s, Wind Energy Corporation’s web site, and all I could locate was a single landing page. Red flag #1. I also searched for Jack Phillips on Linkedin and his background is...
I first heard of the East 11th Street windmill in hushed voices, over cafe con leches at a Cuban restaurant on Avenue C.
Sheerwind makes radically inappropriate comparisons between their long-disproven approach to wind generation and actually useful wind generation. The numbers show that they are likely about eighteen...
The tariff for small wind between 20 and 200kW for all the connected turbines in 2014 and 2015 will remain 0.268 €/kWh
Evance have an innovative new windmill design 90% of the way through development and nearing the production stage, following the manufacture and supply of almost 2,000 of smaller windmills –between...
Quiet Revolution, the one-time manufacturer of an architecturally dramatic helical wind turbine, filed for bankruptcy on 15 April in London. Note: The following is adapted from the forthcoming...[more]
In the spring of 2014, Urban Green Energy (UGE) announced with much fanfare that they had completed third-party performance testing on a new product, the VisionAIR wind turbine. As press releases for...[more]
Vertical axis wind turbines (VAWT) continue to get attention, press and R&D funding. Antagonists of mainstream wind generation continually point at them as if they were a superior technology. People...
The world market for small wind has continued to grow: As of the end of 2012, a cumulative total of at least 806’000 small wind turbines were installed all over the world. This is an increase of 10 %...
Over the past few months, an interesting wrinkle on the vertical-axis-wind-turbines-are-better mythology has surfaced: that they are superior offshore and that many countries are investing heavily in...
It was an odd call. An ACE hardware store deep in Michigan called with a request for parts to the infamous Honeywell Windtronics “wind turbine”. Naturally I was curious why an ACE hardware store was...[more]
A wind energy firms' claims it will revolutionise wind power have been questioned by critics following a US$55 million investment in it by the New Zealand Superannuation Fund.
The following is an excerpt from my forthcoming book, Wind Energy for the Rest of Us. It is provided here in the public interest because of recent controversy surrounding FloDesign and...[more]
This summary reflects my view at the time. Key participants were acknowledging the technical failure of Vortec 7, but they couched their failure in arcane technical language at arcane conferences. [more]
I am an advocate of the rapid development of massive amounts of renewable energy. I don’t see kites in that anytime soon. . .[more]
Grand Jury for the Eastern District of North Carolina, Southern Division indictment of James Alan Rowan of Mag-Wind, Enviro-Energies.[more]
Thank you for your critique on the CBC article. I do not expect to get praise or support from anyone in the wind industry for the efforts that I have made, but I do wish you and others, would keep an...[more]
It must be a slow news week out on the Canadian Prairies. No big city mayor smoking crack or threatening to kill someone in Saskatchewan to grab attention. Instead they’re touting another—yes...[more]
United States Attorney Thomas G. Walker announced that on October 18, 2013, a federal grand jury in Raleigh, North Carolina returned a two-count indictment charging JAMES ALAN ROWAN with securities...[more]
A dramatic fall in income, coupled with rising energy costs, is seeing increasing number of farmers turning to wind turbines as an additional source of revenue ahead of looming energy regulator...
I haven’t paid much attention to Makani, just as I haven’t paid much attention to other kite designs. And yes, there are quite a few “kite wind turbines” besides Makani, either in the press, under...[more]
While the British government’s inexplicable decision to build two new nuclear reactors has dominated the headlines, Great Britain has meanwhile achieved two little-heralded milestones in renewable...[more]
Small and medium wind turbine installations had a total generating capacity of over 102MW at the end of 2012. For the fourth year in a row, the biggest growth in installed capacity was observed in...
Updated with a photo of the 18 Venger V2 Savonius turbines on the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.[more]
Following the latest round of coverage, Gizmag takes a deeper look at his concept, and wonders whether the idea of packing turbines into as tight a space as possible might overlook some wind energy...
In addition to the market price, Gaia-Wind turbine owners will now get a feed in tariff premium of øre250/kWh (approx. 0.35 EUR/kWh).
Is this another example of Federal capital subsidies driving exceptionally overpriced "wind turbines"?[more]
WARNING: There’s an attempt to rebrand Diffuser-Augmented Wind Turbines (DAWT), also known as Shrouded Wind Turbines as Compact wind acceleration turbine. Why this is so isn’t clear. It is possible...[more]
In the past I’ve singled out what are variously called Diffuser Augmented Wind Turbines (DAWT) or Shrouded Rotors for derision. Wind turbine engineers, manufacturers of commercial wind turbines,...[more]
The Small Wind Conference presented Paul Gipe with its first Lifetime Achievement Award on 19 June 2013 at its annual award ceremony in Stevens Point, Wisconsin.[more]
I was making the rounds to Upland, Indiana as part of a family reunion. We’d just stuffed ourselves on ice cream at Ivanhoe’s, an ice cream parlor worth the drive from our hometown of...[more]
I’ve written a lot about the folly of “building integrated” wind turbines, or the corollary, roof top wind turbines. It’s a plague here in the US, Britain, and the Netherlands. To reiterate, the...[more]
I've written before about what is real "urban wind" and in that article I've sited several examples. There are so many examples of functioning, productive "urban wind" worldwide that I don't bother...[more]
Hoosiers have definitely drunk the cool-aid. Worse, it's another example of architectural greenwashing. According local press reports the Nature Conservancy has installed the "crown jewel" of its...[more]
It’s a lovely thought, small wind turbines providing clean supplemental power at your home or in your community. But you don’t have to go far to find tales of small-wind woe, with newfangled...
Gerald Brock, the "inventor" of Windtamer is back at it with a new company using the same Windtamer design.
The Windtamer turbine was still being promoted on Arista Power's web site.
In the annals of greenwashing, no wind turbine company has done more to develop the technique to a fine art. It’s as if the company’s entire business model was built on finding participants who...[more]
The true tragedy of this sad saga is that anyone with a modicum of technical expertise would easily have seen that the entire edifice was built upon a fundamentally flawed design with a business...[more]
Password: mistralmetrodenizen2013--The aim of this framework document is that it can serve as guidance, as far as it is practical, to those seeking to navigate and obtain approval...
Despite the promise of a revolutionary new technology for small-scale wind energy, one local company has found the industry’s headwinds too stiff to stay in business. . . Even after receiving...
I've posted photos of small wind turbines from my archives, including photos of Aircon, Aeroman, Bergey, Easywind, Endurance, Enertech-AOC, Fayette, Gaia, Grumman, Jacobs, Mehrkam, Northern Power,...
The wind industry isn’t going to be disrupted by someone with an idea and a Powerpoint pitch. If someone is approaching you with a great investment opportunity based on a ‘new’ wind generation...
The helical rotor design is reputed to reduce or eliminate the torque ripple encountered in traditional two-blade Darrieus or eggbeater turbines.[more]
FloWind’s development of the Extended Height-to-Diameter (EHD) Vertical Axis Wind Turbine was the last gasp of Darrieus wind turbine development in the US.[more]
Ducted or shrouded wind turbines have been invented and reinvented throughout the 20th century. Ducted turbines are often wrapped in mysterious, technical babble, such as diffuser augmentation, that...
While many misconstrue "urban" wind turbines as those mounted atop or integrated into buildings, true urban wind turbines are commercial-scale turbines placed in or near cities, towns, and villages....
Of the wind turbines shown here, only the turbines atop 12W in Portland, Oregon were probably in service. I doubt that the Windspire turbines on the side of the San Francisco Public Utility...
I've added photos of historical interest to my web pages on Vertical Axis Wind Turbines (VAWTs) and Darrieus turbines of various designs. . .[more]
There are now several measured power curves of the Mariah Windspire publicly available. This is one of the very few contemporary household-size (small) Vertical Axis Wind Turbines (VAWTs) to complete...[more]
The total number of small wind turbines installed all over the world reached 730'000 units as of the end of 2011 after 656'000 units in 2010, after 521'000 in 2009 and 460'000 in 2008. These small...
These are series of photos of a "demonstration" of "urban wind" using five Vertical Axis Wind Turbines (VAWTs) from three different manufacturers at Crissy Field in San Francisco. They are all very...
An insightful summary of how the aerodynamic properties of VAWTs differ from HAWTs by an authority on aerodynamics presented at the 2000 AWEA conference. . .
It is unlikely that any “modern” reinvention of Darrieus designs can perform any better than the experimental turbines Sandia and its contractors developed during the late 1970s and early 1980s. . .[more]
The Windspire is a vertical‐axis gyromill. The H‐rotor is 1.22 m (4 ft) in diameter by 6.1 m (20 ft) tall, capturing a swept area of 7.43 m2 (80 ft2). The data presented in this report was collected...
News account on the bankruptcy of Cleanfield Energy. Cleanfield defaults on CAD-1.5m loan over board approved liquidation[more]
Carol Curtis, the director of the Coconino County Career Center, said employees were told by Southwest Windpower officials Wednesday that the facility in Flagstaff was going to be closed and they...
“For all wind turbines, other than those used for more decorative purposes, the cost of energy is important.”[more]
This review was a case of cleaning my desktop and before electronically filing away Sandia's year-old report on its work with Vertical Axis Wind Turbines (VAWTs), I'd decided to thumb through it and...[more]
Since Wind Energy Basics was first published in 1999, there has been an explosion of interest in new vertical-axis wind turbines. In that edition, the conclusion illustrating one photograph was...[more]
Note: The following is an excerpt from my 2009 book Wind Energy Basics Revised: A Guide to Home- and Community-scale Wind Energy Systems. I am reprinting it here because of the constant...[more]
In preparing for a review of a Sandia report on its decades-long research on Vertical Axis Wind Turbines (VAWTs), especially the Darrieus or eggbeater design, I thought it might be wise to first see...[more]
The quest to slay the faulty dragon of conventional, or horizontal axis, wind turbines (HAWTS) has been an impossible one, thus far. The domination of conventional wind comes from their reliability,...
The installation of small wind turbines is growing rapidly in Italy since the introduction of feed-in tariffs, according to a report by the Department of Engineering at Milan's Polytechnical...[more]
Build Your Own Small Wind Power System was written by a small wind systems dealer, Kevin Shea, and a professional journalist, Brian Howard. Be forewarned, this is a big book. It's a modern book. It...[more]
The following is an email from retired civil engineer Lynn Shafer on his experience with the Honeywell Windtronics turbine. Shafer lives in Sedalia, Missouri. If the company posts a response, I'll...[more]
Small Wind Newsletter: I was struck, while reading your biography, that you started out in this field at around the same time that many other renewable energy leaders (including Larry Sherwood,...[more]
Mariah Power, the company that produced the Sousas' wind turbines, generated headlines several years ago as an example of a successful northern Nevada company making headway in the renewable energy...
This is the history of wind turbine design breakthroughs. Paul Gipe, a prolific and respected writer on wind power, has seen a million of them. I asked him his view of the Catching Wind Power...
DWEA believes the current lack of turbine certification and siting criteria under the various LEED rating systems is hurting the distributed wind industry and is counter-productive to the intent of...
Expected to do the Same in 2012 New Feed-in Tariffs for 2013 The 2010 launch of Britain's feed-in tariff program has pushed the country ahead of the US in the installation of small wind turbine...[more]
I was just going to pick up the World Wind Energy Association's 2012 Small Wind World Report and extract a few useful numbers to keep myself abreast of the small turbine industry. But once I began...[more]
The Folkecenter for Renewable Energy (FC) has again published a handy report cataloging small wind turbines available worldwide. The FC's 2012 Catalogue of Small Wind Turbines is the one neutral...[more]
Reno, Nevada is vying for the world record for "Worst Turbine Install in History" through sheer scale, expense, and hubris. . . [more]
The incident helps explain why the whirling turbines, installed as a featured element at the top of the new 29-story tower last summer, have been silent since mid-December. . .
A pair of local tool and mold shops are owed about $375,000 by a Michigan-based wind turbine company which has closed its production plant after only two years of operation in Windsor.
cautionary tale about an "urban wind" project gone awry in 1982 . . .
Comments on Crissy Field wind turbine installation in San Francisco. . .
The most sophisticated and comprehensive study of small rooftop wind turbines in the Americas concludes rooftop wind turbines are "Not cost-effective at this site". . .
These are photos of the Honeywell Windtronics turbine on display at a vendors booth at the CanSIA exhibition in Toronto, December 5, 2011.[more]
Presentation by Paul Gipe for PG&E Zero Net Energy Homes, Introduction
Presentation by Paul Gipe for PG&E Zero Net Energy Homes, Sizing
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...
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...
But so far, we've seen only a fraction of the total power that WindTronics says we should for our area, even after several visits from a company-authorized installer. At that rate, the Honeywell...
Despite my best efforts, I've been dragged into the DyoCore flap here in California. I successfully ignored Mick Sagrillo's plea to write something. I successfully ignored DyoCore's request to get...[more]
Toepfer is one of the pioneers of small wind in the US. He, like myself, began their careers by scouring the Great Plains for junk windmills.[more]
Wind Power: 20 Projects to Make with Paper by Clive Dobson is a great little book with a wonderful collection of photos and diagrams. I learn something every time I pick up a book, even a children's...[more]
But Energy Estimates Not Off by Much[more]
A 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.[more]
Plus Energy Building: Wind Energy, Small Wind, & Community Wind
Because of my early postings (December 30, 2008) about the Honeywell Windtronics turbine, other observers have been sending me their comments on the product.[more]
After posting my article Honeywell 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...[more]
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....[more]
Zero, Null, Nada Generation in One Year--After one full year of operation, the Elena DAWT has produced zero net electricity.
Because of the rapidly growing demand for windsmiths (wind energy technicians) in North America, several community colleges have begun offering associate degree programs. Several of these programs,...[more]
What Small Wind Needs to Make Its Mark
We have operated an Air Breeze BR0001068 since December 2007. The turbine has performed well without any problems and significantly quieter than previous versions in the Air series of micro wind...[more]
Press release claiming that Cleanfield was installing its VAWTs on rooftops "around the world." The press release implies Cleanfield's association with McMaster University and Ontario's Centres of...[more]
The acoustic noise test was conducted to the IEC 61400-11 Edition 2.1.
Based on what I have been able to locate, I think this structure is another example of ‘Green Gone Wrong.’ I reiterate, I think we need to be mindful about NOT over-hyping some green(er)...
On May 5th, 2010 two-dozen French small wind advocates gathered at the SEPEN test site near Narbonne, France. The meeting was called to discuss the future of small wind in France and whether there...[more]
A combination of common vertical axis wind turbines (VAWT) rotors was designed and tested for optimal performance in low wind speeds.[more]
In retrospect, a little more skepticism would have been in order, because this is exactly the kind of thing you see constantly in hot markets. Revolutionary technology, lots of interest that will...
Back in December I stopped by the Boston Museum of science and checked out the public display of data from their small wind turbine experiment, and I posted some of the publicly available data here...
William A. Schmitz, Chief Executive Officer of WindTamer Corporation, said that, “The decision of the Board of Directors and me to no longer have Mr. Brock head the research and development of the...
Small Wind in North America, the Good, the Bad, the Ugly; Real Urban Wind & the Community Power Revolution
Have Parisians Drunk the Kool-Aid?[more]
What Small Wind Needs to Make Its Mark
The Canadian Wind Energy Association (CanWEA) has called on the Ontario government to offer feed-in tariffs designed for small wind turbines.[more]
Subtitled "A practical guide to small-scale energy production," the book follows ground well trod before and seeks to capitalize on the odd American desire to run their kilowatt-hour meter backwards.[more]
Wind Power for Dummies by Ian Woofenden is the mass-market, mainstream book on small wind turbines that the industry has long sought as a measure of respectability. [more]
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...[more]
As I am learning, most designers tend to quietly dismiss a project's failings, and don't repeat installations like this. And so, as with folks in the USA not paying attention to the results of the...
The following data is summarized from a presentation by Paul Kühn, Fraunhofer-Institut für Windenergie und Energiesystemtechnik (IWES), at Husum, Germany, March 20, 2010 based on observations of...[more]
The French test site, SEPEN (Site Expérimental pour le Petit Eolien de Narbonne), published a performance report 28 September 2009 on Mariah's 1.2 kW Windspire. The test site is in a windy region in...[more]
Article claiming that McMaster improved the VAWTs performance 50% based on wind tunnel tests, according to Dr. Stephen Tullis, leader of the research project and Assistant Professor at McMaster.[more]
Finally, after decades of effort, the American Wind Energy Association has established performance and safety standards for small wind turbines.[more]
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...[more]
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.[more]
Below is a tabular list of the micro and mini wind turbines tested at the Wulf Test Field and the type of tests performed. [more]
During the winter of 1998 through the spring of 1999, I installed equipment to measure the power curve of first mini and then eventually micro wind turbines. The description of this effort and the...[more]
Poor Albert Betz, the German physicist must be turning over in his grave. He's been beaten yet again.[more]
I appreciate the vote of confidence in the Small Wind Certification Council's board of directors in appointing me to the Council. It is an honor to be nominated to be part of the commercialization of...[more]
Presentation by Paul Gipe for ASES Solar 2009
Presentation by Paul Gipe for CanWEA 2009 Conference, Toronto, Ontario. Includes a summary of feed-in tariffs for small wind turbines worldwide and a review of small wind program performance in the...
The turbine had failed sometime in the spring of 2009. We were living in Canada for most of the spring and early summer. When we returned it was the fire season and we didn't drive onto the site...[more]
First, here’s a view of the installation from the north bank of the Charles river,
Mag-Wind is back. Grab your children. Bar the door. The dead walk. . . Worse Ed Begley and Jay Leno, those omnipresent endorsers of all things "green", have leapt to the aid of the undead. Their...[more]
I've reviewed the series of preproduction wind turbine designs from Earthtronics twice before. See below.[more]
Ducted or shrouded wind turbines have been invented and reinvented throughout the 20th century.[more]
A podcast interview with Paul Gipe, author of Wind Energy Basics
Confirms That Rooftop Mounting Doesn't Deliver[more]
Press release using a common ploy to confuse amateurs by announcing UL certification. UL only certifies electrical performance not whether the wind turbine will work as a wind turbine or work well at...[more]
Scams, Frauds, & Flakes--Tell-Tale Signs[more]
Performance monitoring of rooftop wind turbines in Great Britain
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.[more]
The document below is a scanned copy of Adopt an Anemometer: A Unique Anemometer Loan Program created circa 1980 by the Center for Alternative Resources for the US Department of Energy. The...[more]
The Muncie (Indiana) Star recently reported that the Delaware County Redevelopment Commission awarded almost $1 million to a relatively little known German company.[more]
It was interesting to compare the behavior of the various turbines.
The Boston, Massachusetts, Museum of Science, is installing a rooftop Wind Turbine Lab in the summer of 2009.
Data on actual measured performance of small wind turbines at the Test Field for Small Wind Turbines in Zeeland, the Netherlands. The site has a very low average wind speed of only 3.8 m/s during the...[more]
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...[more]
Conclusion? Again, it's unlikely that this wind turbine will produce the reported generation anywhere in Michigan by a large margin.[more]
The Skystream uses a 3.72-meter diameter, three-blade, downwind rotor. Southwest Windpower claims that this rotor will deliver 1.8 kW at its rated speed of 9 m/s and generate 4,800 kWh per year at an...[more]
Twice now on our way to Pearson International Airport in Toronto we've passed two Skystreams in operation at a shopping center. They've both been operating both times. That's plus, we need a lot more...[more]
Presentation at the CanWEA conference i 2007 by S. Tullis at McMaster University.[more]
A thorough analysis of the concept by an experienced renewable energy journalist.
Gaia-Wind II kW--Power curve and annual energy output
Product brochure by a British company for Cleanfield's 3.5 kW VAWT shown on an unusual monopole tower. To my knowledge the Cleanfield turbine was never certified under the British FIT program. This...[more]
Two videos of Cleanfield VAWTs spinning. The first shows two of its small VAWT on the roof of a what looks like a school in Ontario, Canada. The second shows a group of five turbines at an airport in...[more]
Juliette Jowit The Guardian, Tuesday 13 January 2009 Home wind turbines are generating a fraction of the energy promised by manufacturers, and in some cases use more electricity than they make, a...[more]
Stewart Russell captured these photos of a Mariah Windspire installed at the College School in St. Louis. Stewart is an experienced wind hand and noted that the Windspire, which is an unguyed,...[more]
Britain's Renewable Devices introduced its "Swift" micro turbine several years ago to criticism that its estimates of annual production were inflated. See Roof Top Over the Top in Britain. Since then...[more]
It's unlikely that this wind turbine will produce the reported generation anywhere in Michigan.[more]
Or How to Increase the Power of the Skystream 3.7 with the Stroke of a Pen[more]
Press release touting the hiring of an engineer from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario as a specialist in wind energy in urban areas.[more]
The following tables are provided as a public service. Feedback is welcome. [more]
Finally, a detailed-some would argue exhaustive-treatment of how to build your own backyard wind turbine. The authors, do-it-yourselfers who actually know what they're doing, are the powers behind...[more]
AeroVironment has installed 20 units of its AVX 1000 rooftop turbines on a building at Boston's Logan International Airport. The 20 kW installation, part of what AeroViron[ment calls its...[more]
This is a classic example of how not to install wind turbines to best advantage. The best that can be said about this installation is that at least they were not mounted on top of the building.[more]
Consultants to the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative have issued a damning report on the performance of small wind turbines installed under the MTC's subsidy program.[more]
Presentation by Paul Gipe for the Interstate Renewable Energy Council, June 2008
Despite the problem among the thousands of medium-size turbines in the Altamont Pass, there's little data on the impact from single medium-size turbines, small clusters of machines, or small wind...[more]
February 25, 2008 Below is summary of principle characteristics of mini- and household-size Vertical Axis Wind Turbines on the international market. It is not intended to include every VAWT marketed...[more]
Related to the interest in rooftop mounting of small wind turbines is that of integrating wind turbines into the building structure itself.[more]
Below is summary of principle characteristics of mini- and household-size Vertical Axis Wind Turbines on the international market. It is not intended to include every VAWT marketed worldwide.[more]
Cleanfield’s first prototype small-scale Vertical Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT) has been tested in the wind tunnel at National Resources Canada’s laboratory in Ottawa.[more]
Applachian State University has tested a number of wind turbines at its Beech Mountain Small Wind Research and Demonstration Facility. ASU has published reports on both performance and noise. It is...[more]
Tests on the Whisper H40 at Applachian State University's Beech Mountain Small Wind Research and Demonstration Facility by Brent Summerville confirm earlier power curve tests on the H40 at the Wulf...[more]
Tests on the Air X at Applachian State University's Beech Mountain Small Wind Research and Demonstration Facility by Brent Summerville differ inexplicably with power curve tests on the Air X at the...[more]
We installed an Air Breeze at the request of Southwest Windpower in mid December. The turbine was provided by SWP at no charge. We are testing the turbine pro bono.[more]
The following documents were made available to the public in Great Britain. They refer to the field trials of several dozen micro and mini wind turbines installed on buildings in urban and rural...[more]
The Air X s/n ABeta004 was installed for noise testing in December 2003. It ran unattended until the fall of 2007 when it failed.[more]
Presentation by Stephen Tullis, McMaster University.[more]
In this presentation, Stephen Tullis of McMaster University calls attempts to use Vertical-Axis Wind Turbines in urban environments "promising," but notes they are too new to conclude much.[more]
The Wulf Test Field is situated at latitude 35° 4'20.64"N and longitude 118°23'40.12"W and is at an elevation of 4,600 feet (1,400 m) on the north facing flanks of the Tehachapi Mountains in the...[more]
Technical paper by S. Tullis and his students at McMaster University examining the wind flow around and over buildings. The work was funded by the Ontario's Centres of Excellence.[more]
Another technical article by S. Tullis on what was the Cleanfield 3.5 kW VAWT.[more]
Another research paper by S. Tullis and his students at McMaster Univeristy. The paper acknowledges funding from the Ontario Centres of Excellence and Cleanfield Energy.[more]
The building houses exhibition on water and now on energy. There are two wind turbines installed on the roof as shown in the photos below.[more]
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. The V27 is...[more]
For more than a decade, senior environmental leaders in North America have been waiting for Germany's renewable energy market to collapse, an expectation tinged with schadenfreude.[more]
The pyramids have always been thought to contain some magical power. Maybe they do. Maybe Mag-Wind has found a way to tap into this magical power, because they certainly are not going to get much...[more]
Presentation to CanWEA's 2007 Conference
Performance testing of the Cleanfield VAWT in the 9 m NRC wind tunnel. The test results showed nothing unusual and because they were performed in a wind tunnel are not considered comparable to real...[more]
Has something happened to the water in Britain since they privatized the water companies? Someone should check because the British government has gone berserk.[more]
Le Grand Livre de l'Éolien est le livre de référence pour tous les acteurs du secteur et pour tous ceux qui souhaitent y prendre part à l'avenir. Il donne au lecteur une vue exhaustive sur une des...[more]
Another version of the paper by S. Tullis and his students at McMaster University on the wind tunnel tests of Cleanfield's 3.5 kW VAWT.[more]
The following is an open letter by Hugh Piggot to BWEA calling for action on the unsubstantiated claims by promoters of rooftop wind turbines in Britain. Hugh Piggott is one of the world's most...[more]
Hugh Piggott is one of the English-speaking world's true experts on small wind turbines, especially for off-the-grid applications. [more]
Stewart C. Russell sent these photos of a Windsave installation in Scotland. The turbine is near his parents house and is installed on an expensive home. Note the sheltering effect from both the...[more]
I am a retired IBM engineer living in a very remote area of Alaska who is hooked on renewable energy. I am not soliciting advice just merely passing along some photos and very limited experiences you...[more]
This is an exchange on a message board by a student engineer at McMaster University displaying the VAWT they had developed and installed on a rooftop of the campus in Hamilton, Ontario. This VAWT...[more]
With the flap in early July about roof top wind hype in Great Britain, I was surprised to find the controversy dogging my steps into the Sierra Nevada.[more]
Your claims cannot be substantiated by the data made available to the public and it is likely they cannot be verified in the field. [more]
We returned to the site to remove the turbine for repair. The blades were removed without incident. However when removing the generator-yaw assembly the entire assembly came off in my hands without...[more]
he U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service has a long history of testing wind turbines at its research station near Bushland, Texas. They do good work. They're fair and...[more]
You can't get something for nothing. North Americans who think a micro or mini wind turbine will meet all their household consumption are in for a rude surprise. A wind turbine with a rotor 1-2...[more]
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...[more]
Are you one of the many people who have read or heard that the next generation of roof mounted wind turbines will provide all the electricity needs of the average semi in the UK?
Why You Shouldn't Do It[more]
December 4, 2005 Typical of rooftop turbines, the rotor is tied down on this non-operating WE-10 Algaier turbine in Holzhausen, Rheinland-Pfalz, 2005. The turbine is noteworthy in its own right. The...[more]
News item from McMaster University's student newspaper announcing the development of a Vertical-Axis Wind Turbine.[more]
The renewable lists buzz with discussions about net metering. Renewable's advocates spend hours, days, years even trying to implement net metering over utility objections. Why bother? Net metering is...[more]
Selsam's SuperTwin had operated unattended from March 2008 through sometime in the spring of 2009.[more]
At least several times a year, yet another announcement about a “technological breakthrough” arrives in my e-mail box. Invariably, the device being “unveiled” is a vertical axis wind turbine, and in...
Stewart knows what he's talking about. He's a pro.
December 8, 2003 by Paul Gipe For an explantion of the following chart see the article on measuring power curves. Though some of the turbines do not meet their manufacturer's advertised power...[more]
Simple Rules for Small Wind Turbine Design by Michael Klemen used with permission. [more]
Specifications of Small Wind Turbines at Wulf Test Field Rotor Swept Rated Number Approx. Tip Speed Tip Speed Turbine Dia. Area Power of rpm m/s Ratio m m2 W Blades @ 8 m/s @ 10...[more]
Cruising World Noise Measurements Turbines Rotor Swept Rated SPL* Tested Dia. Area Power @11 knots m m2 W dBA Rutland 913 0.91 0.65 70 75 Ampair 100 0.92 0.66 50 78 Air 403 1.17 1.08...[more]
Summary of Small Wind Turbine Noise Measurements at Wulf Test Field in dBA Hub Reference Slant Sound Projected Projected Turbine Height Position Distance SPL Power 100 to 45...[more]
Comparison of Noise from Small & Selected Medium-Size Wind Turbines ECN/Van der Borg Difference Turbine Rotor Swept Rated Tip Speed Sound Power Data Projection @ 8 m/s...[more]
Air 403 Ambient Noise. Air 403 Noise. Linear regression trend and data for Air 403 charging a constant load. NREL's Arlinda Huskey notes that the data suggests turbine noise begins to level off...[more]
Ampair 100 Noise Ambient. Ampair 100 Noise Charging. Ampair 100 Noise Unloaded. Ampair 100 Noise Summary. [more]
There was generally good agreement with the measurement of ambient conditions for the three seperate tests. Note that the ambient for the Ampair and Air 403 tests was higher than that for the...[more]
BWC 850 Ambient Noise. Linear regression trend and data from one-minute Leq with the turbine parked. Copyright 2001 by Paul Gipe. All rights reserved.[more]
Gustavo de Marsillac Peña presented the findings from a series of laboratory tests on an Air 403 at the American Wind Energy Association's annual conference this week in Austin, Texas.[more]
Both versions of the AirX monitored at the Wulf Test were qualitatively and quantitatively quieter than the Air 403.[more]
Tests during 2002 at the Wulf Test Field demonstrate that the AirX fails to meet the manufacturer's power curve by a wide margin.[more]
Links to more information on small wind turbines.[more]
False, Misleading and Deceptive Claims Regarding AWEA's Purported Endorsement of WindTree Energy Generator[more]
When the 11th edition of Real Goods' Solar Living Sourcebook landed with a thud on my doorstep, I knew I was in for a treat. L[more]
An edited version of the following was read on National Public Radio's Weekend Sunday program. Weekend Edition Sunday Re: Robbie Harris (sp)'s report on Wind Energy for Chicago/Sunday 26 August,...[more]
Doubts about an unusual approach to turbine design have been proven right with the demise of Vortec Energy, launched in 1994 with strong hopes for its diffuser augmented wind turbine (DAWT) design....
Wind turbine company Vortec Energy is being wound up because its project is uneconomic, despite having raised $23 million in the past five years. . .[more]
The announcement this week that Vortec is closing comes as no surprise to Windflow Technology chief executive, Geoff Henderson. Windflow Technology Ltd is raising $3 million to establish local...[more]
While it's difficult and time consuming, author Paul Gipe finds that measuring small wind turbine noise is within the reach of amateurs and asks why manufacturers and national laboratories are not...[more]
California's power crisis has proven fertile soil for a new crop of small wind turbines seen sprouting across the state. From Chico in the north to Temecula in the south, from the coast near San Luis...[more]
Like ducted turbines, a perennial favorite of hucksters and charlatans is, for lack of a better word, squirrel cage rotors. [more]
Researchers at Spain's national energy center, CIEMAT, reported on a survey of small wind turbine technology at the European Wind Energy Association special topic conference in Kassel, Germany.[more]
The following article grew out of research for an extensive revision of my book Wind Power for Home & Business published by Chelsea Green. The article is essentially a report on how to test small...[more]
A Memorandum to Colleagues in the U.S. Small Turbine Industry on the Draft Performance Standard AWEA 1.2.2000[more]
Simplified one-dimensional arguments lead to predictions of speed-ups of about 2 and power augmentations of about 4, but such power levels have not been observed to date.
Hugh Piggott's plans for turning a used brakedrum into a windmill is welcome addition to the literature on small wind turbines. [more]
Vortec Energy - after spending $5 million on what its chief describes as New Zealand's most expensive "sculpture" - has emerged with new wind-harnessing technology and made its first licensing deal....
Wind energy is booming. Not since the heyday of the American farm windmill has wind energy grown at such a dramatic pace. By the new millennium, more than 40,000 medium-size wind turbines will be in...[more]
The most common technique here in the United States is to raise the tilt-up towers with a truck or tractor. I’ve never been a fan of this approach and I’ve long wondered if there is a better way....
My thanks to everyone on the awea-wind-home list for your help raising the BWC 850. Sunday 21 June, Nancy and I lowered the turbine with the griphoist. (Because we will be traveling for the next five...[more]
