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!

Typical August, no wind all month except for the one day. Unfortunately some folks lost power when hurricane Irene passed to the west of us. We never lost power here at Great Rock Windpower’s world headquarters though, so where we usually have the lowest production we got a boost from running all day at “full tilt boogie”. It was quite exciting to watch. We never had a high wind shutdown but came very close. I manually turned off  MGF as it was her first big storm but she still managed to make 550 kWh in the 8 hours she was on line. Morning Glory passed the 100,000 kWh marker this month and is producing even more energy than we had hoped. The Kohlberg 343 must have been on for most of the storm as well. Chris reported that it generated about 150 kWh durning the storm alone. That’s a 6kW average! Kohlberg’s total production passed my 250 this month, even with my two year head start. Good month for Edgartown! I have no idea why the Andre turbine did so well because Richard also reported losing power on and off during the storm. It must have been the south shore sea breeze that kept it going throughout the month. Windy days are coming and the charts will get more fun to watch soon.

These two Endurance E3120s are providing clean energy for a potato farm in Yorkshire, England. Gary was there to assist with the install and commissioning with Earthmill LTD. The UK has a great incentive program through feed in tarriffs and they are installing turbines at a fantastic pace. We really need to push for incentives like that here in the US. Farmers in the UK love Endurance turbines for the clean energy, stable electricity and their reduced energy costs combined with steady income from the tarrif. They also love the fact that they don’t have to give up any ground and can continue to farm those fields just as they have been.

It was a very calm July, shown consistently across the fleet.