Could this Turbine Destroy Solar? | Why haven't we seen these small wind turbines yet...

being in the renewable energy sector I've always wondered why we don't see more wind turbines in residential application my attention was caught by Liam F1 made by a Dutch company with its revolutionary design making this wi turbine supposedly highly efficient and super cheap to run I mean it sounds like such a great supplement for solar panels installed on your home while solar panels generate energy during the day wind turbines can capture wind at night during the day BAS basically around the clock so it seems like an ideal and most affordable marriage I mean wind is one of the cheapest energy sources in renewable energy sector and also the most popular and grit scale generation even cheaper than solar so what has been the issue and why don't we see more went turbines on residential homes we will talk about all that in today's video this topic definitely extends Way Beyond a 10-minute video so I will make sure to dive deep deep ER into various aspects of win turbine options in the upcoming content so if you like this video make sure to subscribe to the channel so you don't miss out in the future now today we're going to dive into how wind turbines actually do their thing we will also compare them to solar power weighing the pros and the cons and then we will also look at some cool turbine inventions as well we want to understand why in the big picture wind is leading on the grid scale as our top renewable resource at a whooping 10.3% share in 2022 and then on the flip side solar is hanging in there at around 3.4% you don't see almost any residential wi turbines in homes whether that's in United States or worldwide let's start with how turbines work so they work by converting the kinetic energy in the in the wind into mechanical Power which is then transformed into electricity here's a little breakdown of the process so the wind turbines are designed to catch the wind when the wind blows it causes the blades to rotate those blades are pretty huge and stretch about 170 ft long some offshore blades can reach over 350 ft that's over 100 m long the bigger the blade the more energy generation so if we downsize those huge wind turbines to fit into our properties whether that's on the rooftop or on a tower the energy generation potential decreases significant L the main part that sits behind the blades is called Nel and it contains the low and high wind shafts generator gears and a brake the yaw drive system controls the orientation of the blades and keep the turbine F facing the wind when direction of it changes there is also a pitch system that adjusts the angle of the turbin blades with respect to the wind and also controlling the rotor speed all those mechanisms work together to maintain performance but also keep the turbine from self-destruction if the winds are too strong it is quite a lot of moving Parts if you dive deeper into the the cell as a whole but getting back to how it works so as those blades spin they turn a shaft connected to the generator which produces electricity on a wind power plant you will have an array of wind turbines in the same location transmission lines carry the electricity at high voltages over long distances and then when it gets to the Transformer station the voltage decreases or increases depending on whether it's going further or not and deliver Powers as needed usually those Transformers will increase the voltage and reduce the current which allows for for Less power losses during transportation and then finally when electricity reaches the community where the power is going to be used the Transformers will then reduce the voltage to make it safe and usable by buildings and homes now when it comes to the location choice for these big wind farms lots of it depends on factors like wind conditions the surrounding terrain and obviously access to electricity Transmissions but when it comes to our homes and deciding if wind turbines would actually make any impact we have to look at average wind speed in our area global wind Atlas is a great resource that I will link for you down below so you can check for your home and your area as well but let's stick to in my area for now so at about 10 m High we have an average speed of 2.57 m/s wind speed and the higher you go the higher the speed so let's look at 100 m height now we get 5.5 m/s not quite a double but a significant increase in speed now let's jump over just two counties over to the West now you can see that even at 10 ft height we get 5.8 m/ second speeds this is because the wind speed in urban areas are slower than in the country areas toll buildings block the wind and slow it down same for trees and even one or two story homes another clue here is the fact that we checked two heights 100 m and 10 m the higher into the atmosphere the higher the wind so the ability to generate a set amount of power will significantly depend on your location and ability to set your microt turbine as high as possible the higher the tower the smoother and more consistent the wind is going to be but what does speed really mean when it comes to microt turbines power generation well on average microwind turbine may have a power output rating from a few hundred Watts all the way to a few kilowatts and some even come in 10 to 20 kilowatt ranges all of this again will depend on the application so we look at the power generation for around 7.62 m/s speed we can expect about 400 17 watts per square meter of production but then if we go down to around 2.57 m/ second speed we now get only 22 watts per square meter which is a huge decrease in power production you can easily check out the production in your area based on the global wind Atlas as well and again I will make sure to link it down in the description below let's talk about different wind turbine options so when we downside the commercial scaled wind turbines we removed some of the mechanisms system like the pitch or the yaw system so we also start limiting the ability of the wind turbine to direct the wind perfectly now most common micro wind turbines look very similar to commercial wind turbines and they are referred to as horizontal axis turbine ha WT they operate horizontally turning at the top of the tower so that the blades face the wind another type would be a vertical axis turbine vawt which is exactly the opposite and and it basically operates perpendicular to the ground and it rotates vertically these can catch the wind coming from any direction and are often referred to as omnidirectional those also don't need to be pointed directly into the wind this is the one that I personally think will have a bigger impact in residential applications since we avoid using using pitching system or the all system now the horizontal axis turbines tend to be more efficient on a large scale applications but with vertical axis even with lower efficiency those can start generating power at lower wind speeds they are also simpler in design so potentially they're being made easier to maintain there are also some cool new designs like the motionless wind turbines by aomine or the Archimedes Rose Looking turbine but we will get into those in just a minute now let's talk a little bit about the cons so the wind does not blow all the time so most of the time those wind turbines operated at 20 to 40% of their capacity and when the wind is blowing they can vibrate and generate some noise because of the movement and obviously the faster they move the higher the noise another big aspect that we covered already is their height the higher the Tower or rooftop application the better the energy generation but also the uglier the look a lot of homeowners in the United States took their sweet time to get used to the looks of solar panels themselves and in a lot of cases homeowner associations still try to limit their visibility from streets or other homes so now imagine the struggle we will face when we bring on wind turbines that stick out of our rooftops or Standalone Towers I mean I personally can already see them emailing us and asking that the wind turbine be lower than the fence line to block The View but that would literally defeat the purpose of installing one in the first place so wind power will definitely make more sense in more ruler country areas where the height won't be an issue HOA won't be an issue and will also generate higher yields considering the higher wind speeds now on top of those two drawbacks there's also the extra cost of Maintenance associated with wind turbines since those have moving parts that cost would range based on the turbine type hi no Max get down hi s that cost will range based on the turbine type and the system but we can expect anywhere from 1 to 2% of the original investment cost so anywhere from $100 to $200 per turbine now I honestly can see that being higher if we look at just one truck roll per year for a technician to check on the motor and all the other electronics and depending on obviously the height of the turbine I could see it costing anywhere from $200 to $500 per service call so obviously comparing it to a solar system there are no moving parts and the system rarely has any issue if installed correctly and properly so how much do those went turbines cost well there's quite a lot of different models and sizes but the price can range from around $1,000 all the way up to $10,000 depending on the size so now comparing the cost of a whole home wi turbine system we're starting to look at 50 or even $100,000 the bigger the energy consumption now not to mention the proper sizing based on the W speeds in your area so comparing it to a solar system that has similar outputs whether you're in the urban area or if you're in the countryside we can see that solar on residential application is still much more cost effective than wind and considering that there are not a whole lot of companies in United States making or installing these turbines determining the cost of one is actually pretty difficult with solar being so much more advanced in the residential Market it's almost a no-brainer to decide on just adding more panels than adding a wi turbine to your home if you've watched me or my other content in the past you know that I'm actually a very optimistic person and I have a huge law for Renewables so this actually is breaking my heart but facts are facts now when is still one of the greatest and greenness power source as far as renewable energy resources and that's why so many companies around the world have been trying to invent a residential win turbine that will be more feasible to homeowners like you and I a few that caught my eye was number one ice wind made by a company in iand and as of today it looks like it's still only available for pre-orders I actually emailed them to find out about the possible date for release yesterday and just before we recording of this video I got a response and the short answer to my when question was q1 of next year but they they did say they're coming out with a new product uh and discontinuing the current one and they're also going to take down the pre-order option from the website they also clarified that their products are designed for industrial and critical applications like Telecom but that does not mean that it cannot be installed on a residential property which is great another big one that got a ton of interest is Liam F1 or awm by a Dutch company called Archimedes their design has a ton of promising specification focuses on high power outputs with limited noise and based on their website in 2016 all of their activities were moved to South Korea and the company seems to be on the lookout for distributions and manufacturers but since 2016 not much has happened so even though there are a ton of viral videos about this product online it does not seem like anyone can actually buy that one turbine for their home that design in particular looks very promising but like most of you watching we will believe it when we see it and the last one another pretty cool one option is by a product by an Asian company Ridge blade they created a product that is installed on top of the roofs Ridge as the name says it is set to cost about $3 to $5,000 for every kilowatt of power which falls in a similar cost per kilowatt as solar slightly slightly higher but that product does not seem to be available just yet either it looks like it made an Irish debut but that's all I could have found online and just a quick note here if you've enjoyed this content please make sure to subscribe to the channel and give this video a big big like it would I would so appreciated and also if you know about any other promising turbines or any cool products make sure to let me know in the comments down below most of these cool turbines are still in the development phase and I hate to be so negative even though I'm smiling about it uh but to me it seems like there's just too many inventors and scientists but very few manufactors or businesses that would actually want to invest in it and sell it on a bigger scale overall the cons as of today still make me think that solar will be the leader in the residential market for renewable energy resources but I am very hopeful that in the future we will find a way to stick to the best design and start m production you know if I lived on the countryside right now with higher wind speeds I would be the first person to install one of these cool products on my property alongside my beautiful ground mounted solar array now if we can only find that one Perfect Design that provides the highest efficiency in lower altitudes like 20 or 30 fet above the ground like at the rooftop lever of our homes and one that can be relatively quiet and as low maintenance as possible I know we're asking for a lot we would find a great supplemental source of power to our residential solar systems I personally don't see how wind Just Wind could beat residential solar just yet but let's see what do you guys think how do you see this sector of micro wind turbines working out in the future please let me know down in the comments that's it for today and I will see you in my next one

Channel: Solartime with Martyna

Views: 482,615

Keywords: solar panels, wind, windenergy, windturbines, wind turbines, liamf1, liam f1, archimedes, icewind, ridgeblade, wind power, wind tower

Id: bS9QVicnch8

Length: 15min 21sec (921 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 01 2023