Design guidance request [RE-wrenches]

[Allan Sindelar]

Wrenches,
We do relatively little off-grid wind; mostly keeping a few of Windy's old
Jake installations from the 80s spinning. Santa Fe County has a 35' height
restriction and lots of sun, so we don't get too many wind installations.
Today I got a lead call that I want to be prepared for (coming in on Friday)
and I am requesting a little advice.

The customer planned a ranch for grid extension, 1 3/4 miles at $48K and
then couldn't get the easement. He thinks he needs about a 3kW array, but
has also asked about wind. He has an existing water pumping windmill on a
tower he says is at least 80'; so far so good. The water pumper served this
ranch for years, but is disabled now, replaced by a 2HP submersible pump
that runs off a welder/generator to fill a stock tank from time to time. The
windmill tower is 300-350' from the house and the rest of the power system,
and he asked if he could use it for a wind charger at that distance. I was
generally encouraging, but need to be better prepared.

>From this basic information, it sounds like a hybrid PV/wind would be a good
bet. My first idea is a Windy Boy AC-coupled to a Sunny Island (or Outback),
along with sufficient and redundant dump load to prevent overcharging and
overspeeding. Is this a reasonable approach?

But my main question is: what's a better way? Assuming we want to use the
existing water pumper tower (and should we?), how should we set up for an
assumed 400' run?

Thanks in advance,
Allan at Positive Energy


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