[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
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
Can you justify it based on it's "coolness" factor, or the fact that it sits under your control, not a giant maniacal monopolistic conglomerate?
I think it would be great for every rural home to have wind power where possible. Even more interesting would be if rural areas could have a net electricity production to power village areas where wind isn't practical.
I don't know if the electrical grid could be entirely free of nuclear and non-renewable sources. The wind doesn't give warning when it will stop blowing, the sun goes down every night, and rivers slow in the summer.
Some fuel can come from agricultural sources, but I highly doubt enough of it could.
Conservation seems to be the 'best bet', but doesn't it stand to reason that this is about as hard as getting some people out of their giant vehicles?
Here is a good overview of energy consumed in the US from 1635 to 2000: <http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/aer/eh/frame.html> The charts are quite alarming, it doesn't look very sustainable at all. -- Martin K http://wwia.org/sgroup/biofuel/ _______________________________________________ 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/
