Kirk, in terms of capital cost per rated kilowatt of capacity, small wind turbines in the 1-10 kilowatt range tend to be about three times as expensive as large industrial turbines. The capital cost curve gets pretty flat around 600 kilowatts of rated capacity. Larger turbines save especially on labour costs or maintenance.
The number of makes of small turbines selling into the U.S. market, which have a good track record for reliability and low maintenance costs, is small (I would say 2). Unlike the situation in say Denmark, there is no easy way for a prospective buyer to access this kind of information Even the best samll wind turbines need regular attention. I would say that *for people with reliable grid access*, a small wind turbine needs to be justified on some other grounds than current economics. Expected electricity prices and reliability of supply in the future (given a declining supply of fossil fuels and especially of North American natural gas) might be one such ground, for people in rural areas with suitable wind energy resources. Investments in conservation and efficiency in the use of electricity will generally be more profitable than investments in alternative supply for most people, until their electricity use is very frugal. Doug Woodard St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada On Tue, 18 Jan 2005, Kirk McLoren wrote: > It takes a very efficient machine to be more efficient > than a personal local machine. The losses of > distribution have to be offset and the costs as well > if one is to be fair. If one has reasonable wind > resources and space it should be given consideration. > Kirk [snip] _______________________________________________ Biofuel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://wwia.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/biofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuel archives at Infoarchive.net (searchable): http://infoarchive.net/sgroup/biofuel/
