March 1, 2005

Preparing the Zimbabwe turbine

Wind energy guru, Hugh Piggott of Scotland, designed one of the world most rugged and useful wind generators as a project for Zimbabwe.
Piggot, one of the most active wind energy advocates on the Internet, went to Temaruru, a site in the eastern highlands where Powertronics of Harare has installed a stand alone community wind power station.

The goal of the project was to design a simple yet powerful method for small communities well off the grid to be self sufficient and have reliable power. The result? What is now known commercially as the African Wind Power 3.6, a 3.6m powerhouse of rock solid reliability.…

by Jerome Baddeley, Iskra Wind

you can make money from a small turbine

Over the last few months UK legislation on planning permission for small turbines has changed, and the selling of power back to the grid means small scale wind energy is now accessible and viable.

Until this year planning laws did not differentiate between giant wind farm scale turbines and the sort of utility scale, farm machinery type turbines most people use on their smallholdings or remote homes. Turbines were either tiny battery charging units seen on yachts or immense power generating units installed by utility companies. This made it difficult for small generators to get planning permission. In the last few months a piece of national planning policy (PPS22) has laid out the distinctions, making it harder for planners to turn down small turbine applications. We have already had several successful applications using PPS22.

The economic case for schools, communities and farmers is now incredibly attractive. With up to 50% grants available from the government Clearskies programme; valuable emissions trading certificates awarded for every unit generated; the ability to sell excess power back to the grid, it is now possible to recoup the cost of purchase and installation of a small turbine in under 5 years. With low maintenance turbines designed to last 20 years that leaves 15 years of steadily increasing income generation and savings as the cost of grid electricity climbs.…