Small wind against large wind

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Grelinette
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Small wind against large wind




by Grelinette » 06/03/11, 09:59

I defend the idea that energy production at the citizen level is globally profitable and as interesting as mass production by large sites such as "wind farms" equipped with huge wind turbines.

My neighbor is a high-level engineer ("X") who does not share this idea and maintains on the one hand that only very large projects are energy profitable, and on the other hand that wind cannot compete with solar ...
So we have big debates about it.

I am looking for arguments to defend my point of view.


To begin with, I draw a parallel between individual photovoltaics, which has been made widely accessible to citizens, while for small businesses, wind power remains little helped. (For what reasons ?)

Then, I installed a small wind turbine in my garden: 5 blades about 1 m long, thinner at the ends, fixed on a 6 m high mast, and for the moment I observe its movement.

I note that it rotates almost 24 hours a day, night and day (whereas solar produces mainly during the day), and even when there is no apparent wind the speed of rotation is around 24 to 50 rpm /min. (Certainly for the moment it does not lead to anything!)

My reasoning is as follows: at low speed, the energy production is derisory but not zero, a bit like a water leak that has a tiny flow but whose long-term volumes are enormous.

I'm going to test other blade profiles by installing other wind turbines (I'm making a wind turbine "mini-farm" : Cheesy: ) equipped with small bicycle counters to measure average speed, maximum speed, number of rotations, etc...

I will also try to fix flyweights on the axis of rotation of a wind turbine which will move apart at high speed in order to increase the force of the torque at high winds and reduce it at low winds.

The ideal would even be a blade profile that changes according to the wind:
High wind: blades wider at the base than at the ends
Small wind: pale finer at the base

I welcome your ideas and comments for:
- the debate Small wind versus Large wind
- how to optimize a small wind turbine


Thank you for your help.
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sen-no-sen
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by sen-no-sen » 06/03/11, 10:43

To begin with, I draw a parallel between individual photovoltaics, which has been made widely accessible to citizens, while for small businesses, wind power remains little helped. (For what reasons ?)


I think that small wind power remains marginal precisely because of the potential risk of seeing forests of masts appear all over the place and without consultation with the public authorities and the...neighbours.

The solar panels meanwhile are relatively discreet by adapting to the roofs, and this in the city as in the countryside.

After a small-scale wind installation, a fortiori when you have enough land, why deprive yourself of it?
I find it unfortunate to want to put two complementary and relatively virtuous sources of energy into competition.
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by Obelix » 06/03/11, 12:16

Hello,

My dear Grelinette, I have often had the same discussion with high-level naval engineers x central supelec and so on...
The problem is that the discussion is biased from the start.
Profitable for whom???
They will tell you about society in general
You are going to talk about the individual in particular or at least an association on a human scale.

This is the whole difference, a centralized production allows all the interferences through the persons in charge that it is necessary "to feed" of the taxes of the taxes which allow half of the inhabitants to feed on the work of the other half.
Decentralized production no longer makes it possible to enslave producers, and therefore to quantify their income...

Obelix
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Philippe Schutt
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by Philippe Schutt » 06/03/11, 14:22

For the moment, there is also that producing power at night is a bit useless since EDF throws it away. Photovoltaics has the advantage of producing when you consume.
But this is likely to change with the democratization of electric cars that are recharged at night. At that time, the advantage will perhaps be in wind power.

That said, I think it's time to reduce electricity consumption rather than increase production. I think of the thousands of existing convector heaters and we continue to build like that.
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by chlemagne » 19/03/11, 19:31

Dear Philippe Schutt,

It is nevertheless the night that we light the lights.
Winter day rises at 9H and sets at 16H.

The convectors do what we ask them. It produces calories just like a sophisticated electric heater.
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by Philippe Schutt » 20/03/11, 09:03

obviously, it is not the lighting that represents the bulk of consumption.
Reducing the fleet of electric heaters would reduce overall consumption.
The convectors have a yield of 100%, but in production and transport, EDF is only around 35%. In the end, a flame heater consumes less.
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