Comments on: Putting wind to work on farms

MMA Renewable Ventures is expanding from solar to small-scale wind farms. Its first customer: the PaTu Wind Farm in Oregon.

[ev61]

excellent to see, this is something I have been waiting for for years.

[open-mind]

I've seen about 50 of these windmills in N. Illinois and S. Wisconsin. All look exactly like the one in the photo.

I've often wondered why they don't have more blades ... seems that would generate more power up to a point. Also wonder why they don't build more of them in the more windy parts of the USA ... like Kansas, Iowa, and Nebraska.

[suyts]

They are building some in Kansas, can't comment on the other states but I suspect that they also are. However, when all of this power come online, I doubt that Kansans will see this as a good thing. Understanding that we still can't store AC electricity, a very big problem arises when the wind doesn't blow enough or at all. Something must be built to deal with this all too common occurrence. We can't use the existing coal and nuke plants to back up the wind generation. It takes days to change coal power output and weeks for nukes. The only options are hydro(when available) or natural gas. In the central plains states, it will be natural gas. Considering that it costs 5 times more than coal to generate, and the prospect of more reliance on an expensive solution, this is hardly a bargain. The wind farm would have to have an up-time of over 80% before customers see a savings after the cost of the infrastructure builds so more likely up-time of over 90% would be the brake-even point. The wind doesn't blow that much here.

[Manhattan2]

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[galeso]

Actually, a single lightweight blade would be most efficient in a stiff breeze, but the vibrations would destroy the windmill in short order. Multiple blades could help when the wind is under 10 mph.

[EESgreentech]

Dear Martin
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.We sell wind turbines and solar panels for homes and attach them with water pumps for farms. Please visit our website and browse around and tell us what you think .
www.EESgreentech.com

Thanks,
Mustafa