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Did anyone else see the Modern Marvels episode on The History Channel last night? I think it was titled Environmental Tech.
Anyway, they showed some really neat, small, wind-powered turbine generators from a company called Pacwind. The website isn't very forthcoming about pricing, but it appears that a 2kW unit would go for about $3-5K. About the only other costs would be the pole or tower to get it up in the air, and the electronics for the inverter/grid-tie.
The design uses a vertical shaft, so the mechanism doesn't have to rotate to face the wind. Also, they claim that with this design, the turbine appears as a solid object to birds, and they don't fly into it, as happens with the big propeller style turbines.
Snorpus: A friend was telling me about this company but I missed the name...certainly a lot less than the $85,000 I priced last year...2 Kw might run a frige and some low wattage lights...Thanks, guys...I check them out...
Doing a quick, back-of-the-envelope calculation...
Assume 10c/kWHr as the current cost from the power company. Assume an average output from the turbine of 1kW. The hourly "savings" (cost avoided) would be $0.10, or $2.40/day.
That's $72/month, or $864 per year. The payback period on a $5K system would be about 6 years, at current electricity prices. Excel calculates that that series of cash flows has an internal rate of return of about 8%.
Now, there's a lot of assumptions in the above, but the result seems pretty reasonable.
I just wish more people in Elkins supported the propesed wind farm, they are scared it will hurt the historical asthetics of the area. I personally view it as looking progressive and self efficient and I'd be willing to be a lot of these tourists with their pockets full of money would too!!!
With the vast amounts of deer in Wv...and the liability cost to the insurance companies...State Farm, Allstate and the others are putting their agents into the woods this fall for a gigantic deer drive. The drive will begin at Parkersburg and end on the top of the mountains east of Thomas. The insurance compainies are hoping that the windmill props will kill several million deer similar to the carnage now done to eagles, Canada Geese and the like.
Many Charleston lawmakers are coming to Caanan for the worlds largest venision fry and antler boil...
The date hasn't been announced, but it's supposed to co-inside with the buzzard migration out of Ohio...
A DNR spokesman indicated that with the 'Insurance Deer Drive' the state would not need to poision the deer by helicopter...as has been alledged in the past...
Doing a quick, back-of-the-envelope calculation...
Assume 10c/kWHr as the current cost from the power company. Assume an average output from the turbine of 1kW. The hourly "savings" (cost avoided) would be $0.10, or $2.40/day.
That's $72/month, or $864 per year. The payback period on a $5K system would be about 6 years, at current electricity prices. Excel calculates that that series of cash flows has an internal rate of return of about 8%.
Now, there's a lot of assumptions in the above, but the result seems pretty reasonable.
Not just that, but wind power is much more friendly to the environment. The birds that fly into the windmills deserve to die, too... Natural selection and all.
I don't see many of the 'Windmill owners living under the props...most spend their lives in Palms Springs or Dallas and visit their bank accounts several time a day...they don't really give a rats patoot where the 100' eye sores spin as long as they spin the dollars into their bank accounts...
I'm hoping that with natural selection a giant sea gull will adapt and squirt a 500 lb load of white wash into the trubines and render them harmless. This is strictly an assumption.
What is real is this: Wv has unused water power up the ying-yang...now, in order to keep the unused locks/dams..(In existence since the early 1800's, but moderinized) working, a federal program is underway to harness the water from these un-used utility sources and produce electricity...
and that smelly, dirty 900lb gorillia..(Coal) It's underway to produce gasoline of all things...who would have thought?
Plants were in operation doing just that during WW-2...now things are critical again...and our Demo's want to kill this industry too...even if the cost to use is cheap and non-polluting...
What is real is this: Wv has unused water power up the ying-yang...now, in order to keep the unused locks/dams..(In existence since the early 1800's, but moderinized) working, a federal program is underway to harness the water from these un-used utility sources and produce electricity...
The main problem with daming the rivers is that it affects fish populations so much. Fish and other aquatic wildlife are EXTREMELY susceptible to any environmental changes, and I'm glad that West Virginia is, overall, wild and wonderful, as opposed to dammed.
Let's use Wind-mills and fark the "eye-sore" "NIMBY" attitude. Function over form.
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