Out like a lion? December was a good month for wind energy on MV and we finally had a month that wasn’t well below average wind speed. We had better wind than last december but not quite as good as 2009 and 2010.

Allen Farm finished its first full year producing well beyond expectations with a total of 132,577 kW hours of Juice! 132 Megawatt hours!

Morning Glory is at 222,268 total and made 85,763kWh in 2012. While it pales in comparison it shines considering the surrounding trees and still beat our predicted output  on a very low wind year.

I will say the same for all the other machines as well. We may be small but together we have generated a lot of clean energy, advanced the clean energy cause and continue to help a couple small wind manufacturers improve their products. It feels like we are taking baby steps sometimes but at least it is forward progress.

Notice the background photo for the Comparison Chart! Thats the Allerton Farm after a new year snowfall. The shot was taken by their nephew Sam Green. Gorgeous!

Check this site out! This is a great way to find out if you have a good site for a wind turbine and if you do then you can take it to the next step and find out just how much a turbine could produce on your property.

April was down about 50% from last year, down about 15% from 2010 and down about 40% from 2009. That makes this April’s winds appear to be fairly lame. Still as a group we were able to squeeze twenty thousand kiloWatt hours out of those lame winds. I expect the gradual decline in winds to continue as we approach summer as always and our solar compatriots will start to pick up the slack.

March 2012 proved to be a little quiet, wind wise, compared with last year anyway. One bright note is the Fielders new S343 in West Tisbury which was outpaced this month only by Emily’s s250 up on “The North Slope”. That of course excludes the two E series turbines which are both doing very well . The Allen Farm machine continues to produce remarkable amounts of energy.

Are you ready for this? …   As a group we have generated enough electricity to date to drive about a million miles in an all electric Nissan Leaf. There IS hope for the future!

This is a 6 minute video of what it feels like going up, in and back down a 120′ 50 kW wind turbine.

 

 

This recently installed Endurance S343 5 kW wind turbine will generate electricity for this new home’s ground source heat pump as well as all the typical domestic electric use. The home and turbine are located in West Tisbury MA on Martha’s Vineyard.

The turbine runs quiet and smooth sited well above the tree line on a 105′ tilt up tower. Look for it to the West as you drive down Old County Road

The Allen Farm and Fielder turbines both hit the chart this month. Fielders S343 started off nicely with a partial month and the Allen Farm E3120 saw its first full month. The 50% more that it generated in January is a testament to a good wind site. 17,973 kWh is a new record for a turbine on MV. The elevation of the hill with great exposure and few trees or buildings to disturb or slow down the wind make a significant impact on generation.

How can it make that much difference? Remember that the power available in the wind is a function of the cube of the wind speed. If we consider that doubling the wind speed can create 8 times the energy, we can understand then how a jump for instance from 5 m/s (meters per second) to 5.7 creates an increase of 50%

Down time at the Boyles went unnoticed due to winter, which resulted in a lower than expected month for that turbine but everyone else ha a decent January.

As a group we generated 34 Million watt hours in January

 

First, the bad news.  Production was down an average 23% for 2011 as compared with 2010. December alone was down 52% among the group.

But here is some good news. Because MorningGlory’s E 3120 was only on for half the year in 2010, as a collective, we generated 30% more energy in 2011 than 2010!

Want even more good news? The Allen Farm’s turbine is 100% on line as of last Thursday and with it and the Fielders 343 I expect our collective generation to double in 2012!  I expect the Fielder’s 343 to be sanctioned by NSTAR in January.

OK OK I know thats exciting stuff and now we can even add that FINALY this December, 24 years after the clean air act was signed into law, new rules to specifically cut mercury and arsenic emissions (mainly from Coal electric plants) were signed into law by the president. The EPA says that the new rules could have public health benefits ranging from $53 to $140 billion, while imposing costs of $11 billion. Electricity prices will likely rise but it will make renewables even more valuable.

HAPPY NEW YEAR INDEED!

Peace,
Gary

October was a beautiful month, not the best for wind but the weather was perfect. The no name northeaster that brought 63mph winds was a nice addition to a low wind month and it was exciting to see the turbines cranking it out for a while, then shut themselves down when they needed to and then turn themselves back on.

Results look typical with the exception of two turbines that were still suffering from electrical problems I can only attribute to remnants of the freak electrical storm in August. Sibley’s 343 is back on line now with a brand new control panel from Endurance Wind Power who stepped up to the plate with exceptional tech support and warranty service as usual. The Rodegast’s ARE 110 suffered corrosion in the alternator which Exzeres Wind (they bought ARE) rebuilt to new specs, but the control panel has been sent back to Exzeres Wind who have promised to do the repairs under warranty as well. All the other turbines have been running great.

Preparations for two new turbines are well under way and we should have an new 343 and a new E3120 up by the end of November. Exciting and busy times for Great Rock Windpower!