Off the Grid, is it possible? Wind Energy
The question still stands.., can we get off the grid.
In our previous post we concluded that Solar Power is a real possibility. All it really takes is money.., a whole bunch of it.., but as far as the authorities are concerned.., it should not be a problem.
Granted, in wintertime we will have a challenge.., a lot of cloudy days can cause a depletion of the batteries, if we’re not careful.
Windpower
So, another power source.., an additional power source would be quite helpful and since we are not blessed with a stream running through our property.., wind power is the only other viable source of energy.., note that I put “viable” in there. Off course there are several other ways to generate power, but these are not viable for us.., either they create a dependency (gas, uranium, diesel), or are too expensive.
No, wind is the only other “free” source.
Any problems then? Put up a wind turbine.., the biggest you can find and presto.., free energy forever. Well.., not quite.
Unfortunately there are regulations. And one of those regulations is that if we want to put up a wind turbine it has to be in the building zone of our land, not in the agricultural zone.., well that’s OK. We just put it all the way on the edge.., as far from the house as possible.
Again.., not so fast. For every meter we go up.., we have to keep the ground clear. So a 6 meter pole means a radius of 6 meter around to be clear, of anything. If the thing would fall over it would not hit anything.., makes sense, but it is annoying.
And I’d rather go up 12 meters than 6. If we could put it further down the land, things would work out just fine, but we can’t and it doesn’t.
Besides, studies show (PDF) that these things are expensive and not as efficient as one would like them to be.
RidgeBlade
Now, the people over at The Power Collective have developed a brilliant device called the RidgeBlade.
What they have come up with is brilliant. They fitted a turbine on the top of a house, but like no other.
I quote:
“The RidgeBlade is fitted on the ridge line at the top of a building and uses the existing roof area to collect and focus the prevailing wind. This is where the wind is forced to travel over the roof surface, accelerating the airflow though the turbine.”
Since we are in the process of filing for a permit this would neatly fit into our designs. But.., alas.., the people at The Power Collective are not market ready yet. They would love to sell me one, obviously, but they’re still testing and getting the whole production going.
They do plan on having something next year (2011). The idea is to start with a retrofit product.., adding the RidgeBlade to existing houses. That would fit us quite nicely. And the RidgeBlade would be aligned nicely with our prevailing winds. Don’t know what it’ll cost, but I’ll bet it will be an arm and a leg. But we have to wait and see, I’m on their mailing list.
Update: The latest word from The Power Collective is that “the whole point of RidgeBlades is that they should be affordable“.
VAWT
So, we have nothing then, no wind energy for the Four Elements House project. Well, maybe one more option.
A VAWT (Wikipedia: Vertical Axis Wind Turbine). Since we can’t go up, we have to stay on the ground. And yes.., the higher you can go, the better wind you can get. But if you have to stay low to the ground, a VAWT has the potential to deliver, something a HAWT cannot, or will hardly do.
We did find a supplier, in fact we found a guy pretty close to Chenogne. Appropriately they call themselves Greenenergy. But, as with most things related to green energy, this too is a very expensive hobby. Sure, we can earn the thing back in 20 years and you do get to be green. But we still have to invest a gargantuan amount of money (14k plus) in order to get there.
An advantage to these developments is that people/companies are developing machines that do seem to work. They may be (very) expensive, but the technology is out there. And people are building their own machines too.
SelfBuild
Our last resort as far as wind power goes.., seems to be.., building one of our own. Only a VAWT will do, we can place one of those without a permit or attention. All we need to do is make sure it can catch the wind.
A quick search on YouTube give multiple videos of VAWT systems build at home. And step-by-step manuals exist also.., like on the Instructables or on eHow.
Now, there are no plans yet, but chances are we will build one of our own, or die trying… All we need is a few pieces of the right equipment, some know how and a lot of determination. I think this should not be problem.
So, stay tuned, the plans and how we will prevail shall be posted.., of course.
Jun 16th 2010
What are the pros and cons of wind energy?
Jun 17th 2010
Pro – Green green green
Con – space, height and you’d need good winds (not all locations are suitable), pricing (a good size, usable wind turbine is still expensive).
You can make it yourself, but you quite likely would need more power generated,so additional PV’s might be necessary.
And then there are the rainy, windless, dark winter days… energy storage is still a challenge.