wind issues [RE-wrenches]

[Matt Tritt]

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Doug,

One of the reasons that the Big Boys have such realistic power curves and
estimated annual outputs is the scale of the industry. If you, like me, have
ever attended any wind industry conventions you are aware of the amount of
money involved in those types of installations. Yikes! There is simply too
much to lose or gain to allow any imaginary information to appear in print.

What do you think about a device that would measure windspeed, direction and
power produced that could be easily connected to any small turbine and read
and/or transmitted to the manufacturer, the turbine owner and a verifying
agency? The advantage of a testing facility over a manufacturers back lot is
that down time because of mechanical or electrical problems can be verified
and recorded instead of being glossed over. The problem with a test facility
is that they aren't always located in a convenient location for one or
another turbine company, especially when they are overseas. If a portable
device were available, virtually any place could be a test site.

Maybe something that would work would be to write up a letter or petition to
run by AWEA and NREL that requires small turbine makers to accept a
universal testing method, equipment and procedure that would apply to
everybody, here and abroad. How about requiring a rating of power @ 10 and
12 M/S?

I think that the only fair measure of performance is actual windspeed in and
actual power out to a battery or point of grid inter-connection. This should
apply to PV as well.

What do you think?

Matt T
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Doug Pratt" <dmpratt at sbcglobal.net>
To: <RE-wrenches at topica.com>
Sent: Thursday, July 01, 2004 9:23 PM
Subject: RE: Re: wind issues [RE-wrenches]




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Ezra, Matt, Folks,

The sort of certified, verifiable testing you envision for small scale
wind turbines already exists and is widely used for the larger power
production turbines. In fact this is one of good reasons the large
turbine industry is growing so rapidly, and doing so well. They can
guarantee a given annual output and return on investment...in fact, they
have to, or pay penalties in most wind farm developments. I've heard
Paul Gipe rail on this subject repeatedly (and Paul, if you're
listening, don't stop! It's good!). We aren't going to get honesty from
small turbine manufacturers until we demand it. So long as they can get
away with calling 250-watt turbines '400-watts', 600-watt turbines
'1000-watts', and 5,000-watt turbines '7,500-watts', they will. (Is
there anyone I missed offending without naming brands? Raise your
hands!)
  If anyone's got any good ideas for making small turbine manufacturers
toe the line, speak up. I wouldn't mind lending whatever marketing
muscle the Real Goods catalogs can bring to bear on this subject. Let's
have a laboratory standard to compare to.

Sincerely,
Doug Pratt


-----Original Message-----
From: Matt Tritt [mailto:solarone at charter.net]
Sent: Thursday, July 01, 2004 8:29 AM
To: RE-wrenches at topica.com
Subject: Re: Re: wind issues/ Bergey [RE-wrenches]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ezra Auerbach, DragonSun Consulting" <ezra at lasqueti.net>
To: <RE-wrenches at topica.com>
Sent: Thursday, July 01, 2004 6:58 AM
Subject: Re: Re: wind issues/ Bergey [RE-wrenches]

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