Renewable Energy | Wind | Solar | Micro-Hydro Wind energy is one of the most controversial form of renewable energy. There has been much debate about the huge commercial wind farms, with passionate arguments on both sides. At The Solar Workshop we work at the other end of the wind scale with small household size systems. These turbines can have a rotor diameter between 1.2m and 4m. On a good site these machines are capable of powering a household, although in the prevailing conditions on the Granite Belt, we recommend a hybrid system with the wind turbine connected in parallel with solar panels. Wind and solar are complimentary technologies. Its very rare to get calm and cloudy weather. When the sun is not shining the wind often blows. It is very difficult to predict the amount of energy that a wind turbine will produce. Commercial wind farms undertake extensive wind monitoring surveys for years in some cases to get a reasonable accurate idea of the wind patterns at a particular site. This is impractical for most household sites who probably need power now not in 6 months or a years time. Local knowledge is the next best, although wind speed is often overestimated. It may be possible to adapt Bureau of Meteorology figures for a particular site to estimate an average wind speed. This means that we can never say for sure how much power you may generate form your site, unlike solar that is easily quantifiable. The most important consideration after deciding on a wind turbine is tower height. Placing wind machines on short towers is like putting solar panels in the shade. They need to be up where their fuel is and that requires a tall tower. The accepted rule of thumb is that the turbine should be 10metres above anything within 300metres. The amount of energy the turbine will produce will increase dramatically if the tower height is increased. There are many tower types available, from the familiar farm windmill tower (which are not ideal for wind turbines) to tilt up pipe towers. These are the preferred option as they allow for all maintenance work to be done with the feet firmly on the ground. Installation of a micro turbine is fairly simple, however larger turbines on tall towers are very much more difficult and dangerous. This is not a job for the inexperienced. It requires a methodical approach and attention to detail to make a successful tower raising. Once installed modern wind turbines are very reliable. Obviously any machine that has moving parts requires maintenance and this usually involves lowering the tower to the ground, however if the original installation work was done correctly this is simple and quick.