Are Wind Powered Electric Generation Systems Practical?

Seventy or so years ago, wind generated electric power was used in many rural homesteads across the United States.  Then the government, through the Rural Electrification program, quickly expanded the power lines to these out of the way places (which, back then, was almost everywhere except major cities) supplying centrally generated electric from large utility companies.  The expansion created major industries burning up huge quantities of coal to supply all this electricity.  This power was dependable, inexpensive and practically unlimited.  Thus began a trend of pollution and wasteful destruction of our fossil fuels.

Pollution and wasteful squandering of irreplaceable resources just isn't right!

In 1975 I was gathering information on alternative and renewable energy.  Wind power at that time was discussed and written about frequently because it had been around a long time and was known to work.

One of the pamphlets I sent for via mail($2.00) was Electric Power From The Wind by Henry Clews. At that time, his book and his company, Solar Wind, were among the very few sources for wind power equipment and information on actual applications.  Clews and his family were living completely off the grid at that time. 

Some interesting articles from:

Popular Mechanics  November 1974

Popular Science July 1974

have quotes from Mr. Clews and discuss his experiences living strictly off wind power and the costs involved.

Of course, in the pamphlet he gives a great deal more detail and information than found in the above articles, but I'm sure the pamphlet is no longer generally available.

Solar Wind company in 1974 was selling a 1000 kilowatt-hour per month wind turbine with battery storage for "about" $18,000.00. This did not include installation.  Mr. Clews did his own installation for himself and sold equipment to others to do with as they would.

That $18,000.00 adjusted for inflation is $78,330.00 in today's dollars. And don't forget, it isn't installed yet! It is quite possible that with installation included the cost could have exceeded $95,000.00. At that time the average electricity price was 0.04 cents per kWh.  In today's dollars that is 0.17 cents per kWh.  Assuming the full 1,000 kilowatt-hour per month usage, that comes to a savings of only $2,040.00 per year in today's dollars.  Not many people could afford to "save" that small amount in proportion to the investment.  Also, the 1,000 kWh per month would not be enough for the average home today.

It just wasn't practical.

In his pamphlet is a worldwide list of manufacturers of wind generators in 1974.  The total was 5.  Of those 5 only one was in the United States and NONE of them are building wind generators today!

Popular Science of July 1982 has an article titled "33 Windmills You Can Buy Today!"  Apparently the energy crisis of 1973 and 1979 opened some eyes.  For a while anyway!

However, the crisis passed, the world went back to its gluttonous ways and wind power once again was not a viable energy source.  It would be interesting to find out how many of the 33 manufacturers of wind generators from the 1982 article are still selling them today.

The designs shown in these old articles are no different than those today.  The methods of application are the same as well.  Only slightly increased efficiencies are evident as improvements.

Now, let's look at the potential for wind generated energy today.

We'll use the same home as in the previous post, 2,400 sq. ft. located in the southeastern United States with an $150.00 per month average electric bill.  At 0.11 cents per kWh that works out to 1,364 kWh used per month.

A grid-tie system (no batteries, all power generated is used immediately or fed back to the utility) designed to generate 35% of the electricity used would cost approximately $24,500.00 (this could vary +/- 10% depending on installation variations).  Federal and State tax credits could, depending on your tax situation, bring this down to $17,150.00.

Using the same inflation and assumptions we used in the previous posting the breakeven point is in 14 years.

Better than the solar cell system which the breakeven point was at 17 years.

BUT......

The estimated life span for the solar cell system is 25 years and the life span for a wind generator system is 15 years.  If you're going to spend the money, the solar cell system is a better investment.

Also, the solar cell system would probably have less potential problems from storms and require less maintenance.  The wind turbines require oil changes occasionally and they are on top of a tall pole!

See the solar cell post for comments on adding batteries and having a completely off the grid electric generating system.  It isn't cost effective with wind power either.

So, there you have it.  There is a payback with grid-tie solar and wind turbine electricity generation.  But, it is expensive!  And not actually practical or affordable for most people.

NOW though, keep in mind the 70 tons of CO2 NOT polluting the atmosphere!

We will next review some other alternative energy applications and how practical they are.

Some other pamphlets from 1975 and 76.

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clyder@practicalgreensystems.com

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