Another Featured Renewable Energy Generation System

As you've seen on here a few times before, I like to feature little renewable energy projects that are good not only for their owners and the environment, but also help spread the message by being conspicuous. I've talked about the ones in the pics below, at Walmart in Lowell AR, and also at St. Thomas' in Springdale. Feel free to click on the pictures to get a better view.

















Here is a new system that is set up right next to the freeway in Rolla MO. It consists of a Bergey Excel S 10 kW wind turbine, about 2 kW of solar panels and a weather station. It is part of a project by the University of Science and Technology. The setup is on the front lawn of the Highway Patrol Headquarters and its purpose will be to test the performance of the system as well as keep track of all sorts of weather stuff. To the left you can see the 10 216 watt solar panels.












Here is the brains of the operation, the inverters, weather station recorder, and whatever else. It's hard to see, but there is a rainfall recording device attached near the top of that yellow post next to the propane tank in the background. I assume it's wireless.






















Here is a picture looking up at the turbine and the anemometers of which there are three. No the tower is not straight, but it doesn't really matter as long as it doesn't fall over. For a little perspective which is hard to get standing next to the thing, it is on a 36.5 meter (120 feet) tower and the blades are 6.7 meters (22 feet) in diameter.













I didn't know what this was right off.


I had either never seen one before or never noticed. I did a little research and found out that it is a pyranometer which measures solar irradiance.














Here is the whole thing. It looks really good from the freeway. If you look up Bergeys, you'll find that this one has a custom paintjob as Bergeys have a very characteristic yellow to them. There's another one with original paint along the freeway in Springfield coming back from Lambert's that is on a monopole with a solar system with it too. I believe it is next to some sort of utilities office. Both excellent examples because a Bergey Excel is a great turbine for whole home service. One of these should easily be able to provide all the electricity for an efficient home in a moderate wind area. This unit is the grid connected unit, they also make a 7.5 kW low wind speed optimized unit for battery charging.













The wind was pretty heavy, so I decided to take a quick video to show how loud the wind turbine is. The problem is, I was standing right under the thing and it was no louder than the wind. In fact, on the video, it is virtually impossible to pick out the sound of the turbine. Admittedly, my digital camera does not have the best microphone.


Special thanks to the University of Science and Technology.
WiredForStereo

The Trinity Wind Project.

I was on my way to have lunch with my good friend Josh, (not Josh Wilson, I have lots of friends named Josh) and I was trucking up 540 on my motorcycle (47 mpg) and I looked over to the St. Thomas Episcopal Church and what did I see that totally made my day, but three brand new Skystream 3.7 wind turbines.

Now I've mentioned before the distinct lack of wind power in Arkansas, and I've talked about the Skystream before, but now I get to do both.

I decided to do a little research because such a visible change to the landscape had to be covered in some news somewhere, and not only did I find that on the Arkansas Renewable Energy page, but also, I found the feasibility study as well.

The whole project cost $42,000. The first thing about this that I see is that it is way too much. A Skystream costs less than $4500. But churches have always spent more money than needed to do stuff anyway. I suggest that instead of doing things the expensive way, we can do a thing the old fashioned way and build some community by inviting people out to help raise the barn, er wind turbines or whatever. This could have easily saved $10,000. Another waste I see is the monopole mounts. these are more expensive than the regular guyed tower type, plus they are comparibly short. The higher a turbine sits, the more power it will make. However, the monopoles do make for a very tidy and stylish look in front of the church.

Symbolism also went into the design process. They are perfectly lined up with the front of the church, and wind has been traditionally associated with the Holy Spirit and the work of God. Three turbines represent the Trinity, two at 45 feet, one at 60. They should have done them all at 100, but whatever.

Overall, I think this is an excellent project. It is very visible, very well done, and on church property. While putting this type of thing in front of everyone is a great idea to raise awareness, the quicker solution would have been to enhance the efficiency of the building since the turbines are expected to provide only 15% of the power for the church. That puts the church's monthly energy usage at 9000 kwh which is way way too much for such a new building, but this is the south. Remember that when considering a wind turbine, you must take into consideration that saving power by buying new windows and efficient appliances will save you much more money and have a quicker payback period than a wind turbine.

I mentioned the Wal Mart Skystream in Lowell, and I have a picture of it and a little analysis. If you look closely, the tower has a substantial concrete base. This thing looks way more substantial than any of the other monopoles, but Wal Mart has money saving people, so I'm sure they know what they are doing. Perhaps they made it extra reinforced to eliminate the possibility of it being blown over. In any case, this is another excellent example of a wind turbine that is highly visible and a good example.

Indeed, all of the wind turbines I've seen in Arkansas are in very visible places. The one in Prairie Grove is not next to the freeway, but it is much bigger. I've just discovered that there are a few more small scale wind turbines in Arkansas including a couple of Bergeys, both an XL.1 and an Excel.

I am excited about the possibility of more and more wind turbines popping up in Arkansas, and I hope these four Skystreams next to the freeway will help bring that about.

Skystream 3.7 at Wal Mart in Lowell Arkansas

I just discovered the other week that for some reason, Wal Mart has put up a Skystream 3.7 wind turbine in the parking lot of their Lowell Arkansas store. This makes two wind turbines that I know of in Arkansas now.

The Skystream is a pretty decent machine, it is a direct to grid style turbine, with the inverter actually built into the nacelle. It is rated for 1.8 kw and peaks at 2.3 kw. Being a small direct to grid style turbine, it will not make any power when the power is out, it will stop. Notice there is no tail, the blades actually trail the nacelle instead of being in front of it. This does reduce the efficiency a smidge, but it eliminates a few parts. Southwest Wind Power advertises that this turbine can make power for cheaper than you can pay for it which is a good thing, especially as energy prices rise.

Interestingly enough, they actually installed it on top of a light pole.

Now, if they'd just finish off the rest of the parking lot, they'd have something going.

WiredForStereo