CBC News

The Honeywell wind turbine is designed for the roofs of homes and small commercial or agricultural operations. (WindTronics)The Honeywell Wind Turbine measures 1.8 meters across and weighs 84 kg. It can begin producing power at wind speeds of three km/h.

A Canadian-made turbine designed to fit on roofs and help power homes and small businesses will go on sale in December.

It is being manufactured at a new factory in Windsor, Ont.

Reg Adams, president of manufacturer WindTronics, told CBC News the turbines will appeal to commercial and agricultural operations, as well as homeowners who are environmentally conscious, or need emergency backup power.

“We are complete emergency home standby systems,” he said in an interview. “It’s like the replacement of a home standby generator. We can build a battery support, and if the power outage is because of a storm, it will have wind. If not, we have charged batteries.”

Each turbine comes with a computerized smart box and inverter that will allow the unit to feed directly into the ac power system of a home or business, or feed the energy back into the electricity grid.

‘The Honeywell turbine makes wind technology affordable and accessible.’—Reg Adams, WindTronics

The design is intended to maximize power output while minimizing noise and vibration. The unit differs from industrial wind turbines in that it looks more like a fan than windmill and generates power through the tips of the blades rather than turning a generator.

“The Honeywell turbine makes wind technology affordable and accessible to the vast majority of Canadian homeowners, who have great wind resources,” said Adams.

24 years to payback

When its installed in an area with high winds, the turbine can produce up to 2,700 kilowatt hours a year. Based on Ontario’s peak power rate of 9.9 cents per kWh, a turbine could save $272 in power costs each year.

However, at a cost of $6,500, with an additional $3,000 for installation, it would take 24 years for it to pay for itself.

Adams says the company is currently negotiating with the Ontario government to have the turbines included in the Feed-in Tariff Program, which pays a premium for green-power energy.

He said if the Ontario government agrees to pay 50 to 55 cents per kilowatt-hour, it will make the turbines far more appealing to everyday homeowners.

If Ontario residents were able to feed power back into the grid under such an arrangement, the turbine would earn about $1,500 per year and be paid for in 4½ years.

The turbines will be sold at Home Depot and other major retailers across Canada.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2010/10/27/con-turbine.html#ixzz14tV2BpbF

01 June 2010 

Amid the recent economic downturn, demand in the U.S. is rising for small wind turbines to power people’s homes. The American Wind Energy Association says sales of such turbines rose 15 percent in 2009. One man in Florida is generating his own power in order to cut his electricity bills. 

A wind turbine sits on top of a small hill, and generates electricity for a nearby home. 

Jim Dotson says he had the turbine installed last year and it is saving his family money. 

“We figured out that we could about cut our electric bill in half, and that’s what we’ve done pretty consistently,” he  said. 

Dotson uses his computer to monitor the amount of electricity his turbine is generating. 

He says sometimes it generates more power than he needs. He then sells the excess electricity to his local power company. 

“Especially in the economic times that we’re in right now, any time you can be more self-sufficient, it’s a good thing,” he noted. 

But Dotson lives in Florida, a state with very few wind-power installations compared to other parts of the country. 

Frank Leslie says Florida is not windy enough to make turbines viable

Frank Leslie, an adjunct professor with the Department of Marine and Environmental Systems at the Florida Institute of Technology, says scientists often view Florida as not windy enough to make turbines viable. 

“The winds are very low. The southeast is not really blessed with high winds that one can extract energy from,” Leslie explained. 

And the cost of installing a small turbine is high – up to $22,000. 

 

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“While the wind is free, the conversion of wind power into electrical power costs money,” he noted. 

Leslie says Florida has a breezy coastline, but many parts are usually calm. 

Wind only produces about two percent of America’s electricity needs

California, Texas and Iowa have the largest wind power generating capacity in the United States. This wind farm near San Francisco is one of the largest in the world with more than 4,000 turbines.   

The U.S. government says wind only produces about two percent of America’s electricity demand, compared to 25 percent in Denmark and eight percent in Germany and Spain. 

Still, Jim Dotson says he is confident he can continue to power his Florida home by harnessing the wind. 

And he says he is even raising money to pay for a wind turbine to power a school in the west African nation of Burkina Faso.

What’s a wind turbine?

“Generally, a lot of people don’t understand how these systems work. There is some misconception,” said Casey Panichi, co-owner of Monarch Renewable Energy in Elgin.

“The first thing people want to know is the price,” Panichi said. “People are interested in how long the system takes to pay them back. People are curious if their county or municipality will allow a wind turbine. Zoning is a critical issue in our area. They want to know the required maintenance.”

The base price is $15,000 to $20,0000, depending on the rebates available, he said. It takes 10 to 15 years to pay off, he said.

Small wind turbines are not like the large kind that dot nearby counties such as DeKalb and Lee or the kind proposed for Lake Michigan near Evanston. Those are wind farms, he said.

The kind used in residential ares have blades about 12 feet in diameter and stand as tall as a flag pole, about 30 feet, he said.

“It can generate enough power for 25 to 40 percent of an average home’s usage,” Panichi said. “There are a lot of variables. Wind is (obviously) a variable. It accounts for the range you have. You have to have a good site — (an) unobstructed site for wind.”

Wind turbines’ blades capture kinetic energy from the wind, turning it into electric energy through a transmitter, Panichi said. An inverter converts the energy into utility-grade electricity, he said. Homes remain connected to the utility company’s grid, so when the wind turbine is not operating, standard electricity can still be used, he said.

If the turbine produces excess electricity, the utility company can provide a credit to the homeowner but will not pay the homeowner for any electricity, Panichi said.

– Gloria Carr