Wind Energy
The wind does not provide ‘firm’ power, i.e. it cannot be relied upon all the time, and it is a simple fact that size matters. There are mind boggling variety of wind turbines available and it is no wonder that it is easy to be confused if you have decided that you would benefit from one.
We were very aware of upsetting our neighbours when we moved to Cornwall so were very sympathetic when siting our turbines. I have to, therefore, acknowledge that they are not in the optimum locations, but that is a small price to pay compared to causing problems in our village. As well as a couple of very small, portable, turbines we have two main installations:
Some power for the house is provided by a Windsave turbine – the sort that are usually mounted on the building, but as our house is listed we used a free standing mast which gives better performance. Lots of people ask about building mounted turbines and we are very aware that a building is not the best place to site one, however, very few of us have a mast on a plain that allows perfect laminar air flow so compromise is sometimes necessary.
Our second turbine is a very cheap 200W Chinese import that charges the batteries for our pump at the spring. It has paid for itself many times over and is nicely tucked away in the valley so is very unobtrusive.