Small Wind Turbines Towers [RE-wrenches]

[Jeff Clearwater]

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Hey Mo,

I'm with David on this one.  Wind is a such a wonderful and 
productive technology when 3 things happen:

1)  The resource is there (average wind speed) to justify the 
expense, aesthetic impact of the tower, installation hassle, and 
maintenance
2)  The tower is well engineered to the machine and the site and the 
tower IS TALL ENOUGH
3)  The customer understands this is not totally armchair technology

With PV you have room for the "I want it really because I want to 
make a statement" kind of customers - even if the economics are 
marginal and they are not willing to do maintenance.  With wind, you 
want to really make sure it's the most appropriate match all the way 
around.

So for your customer how about either:

1)  Talking straight with him.  Free standing towers are a major 
foundation engineering and installation effort compared to a tilt-up 
tower.  And as Mick S. used to say in his wind workshops.  The three 
most common mistakes in wind installations are insufficient tower 
height, insufficient  tower height and insufficient tower height.  To 
get high tower heights with free-standing towers you have to go with 
a pretty massive installation like the SSV series.  Go with a guyed 
tower and you reduce your expense, hassle and up your KWhrs cause you 
can go higher easier.

2)  OR convince him to install some monitoring equipment before going 
for the machine and take data for at least 6 months.  That way he 
keeps alive his vision, you buy some time to educate him more and 
perhaps the data will either convince him to let it go or convince 
you that it is really worth it on a KWH basis.  Data monitoring is 
really not that necessary in most wind installs if you can read the 
site, talk to the locals, talk to someone who has put one in locally 
etc.  But if the resource availability is questionable and/or the 
technology/customer match is questionable, then it can be a good way 
to slow down the process until it shakes out a bit.

Why can't he accept a guyed tower?  The hinged guyed towers are a 
snap to install compared to a free-standing SSV (especially when you 
get up to the 80-100' that is usually smart to go to) - especially 
below 2KW.  There's a whole lot of value in tension members (guys) 
vs. massive materials/foundations and lots of steel.

So there's my .02 from the little I know of your situation.  What I 
do know is the wind installs I've done are a whole lot more energy 
overall than any PV install could ever be.  The liability issues, 
engineering, customer relations - all have to be tighter.  If you 
haven't done some wind, I'd start with a nice tilt-up tower kit 
engineered for a specific machine installed on a for-sure windy site.

Best,

Jeff


>Mo,
>
>Unless the customer lives on a high flat butte with no tree's or 
>buildings, I would strongly encourage you to push him to a taller 
>tower.  Tower height is no place to cut corners...small wind systems 
>are challenged enough as it is to meet customer expectations.  It's 
>hard for me to imagine why if he's willing to be spendy on a 
>free-standing tower, he'd want to install something as small as the 
>XL1.  The economics of this would go from bad to horrible.  By the 
>way, Bergey does sell free-standing Rohn SSV and Monopole towers. 
>It wouldn't be hard to build a tower-top adapter for the XL1.
>
>Just my $0.02
>
>David
>
>At 11:02 AM 12/5/2002, you wrote:
>>Hi All,
>>
>>I have a potential customer who is interested in a Bergey XL.1.  However, he
>>requires a 50'+ tower and will only accept a guy-less type.  Bergey has not
>>been very responsive so far.
>>
>>Any suggestions?
>>
>>Thanks,
>>Mo
>>--
>>Mo Rousso
>>HelioPower
>>Renewable Energy Systems
>>Remote Power Solutions
>>mrousso at heliopower
>>www.heliopower.com
>>760.845.8843
>>
>
>----------------------------------------------------------
>David Blecker, P.E., Director
>Seventh Generation Energy Systems
>608-424-1870 (ph)  424-1810 (fax)
>
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-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jeff Clearwater
Ecovillage Design Associates - Whole Systems Design
Community and Village Scale Renewable Energy & Water Systems

Cell: 720-480-8455
Office:  800-440-2523 (PIN-7071)
Fax:  720-528-7813
jeffc at ic.org

Council Member - Ecovillage Network of the Americas - http://www.ecovillage.org
Advisory Board - Living Routes - Ecovillage Education - 
http://www.livingroutes.org
Founder:  Ecovillage Research, Development, and Demonstration Program:
http://www.home.earthlink.net/~clrwater/RDD/rdd.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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