# Wind power



## mpetro (Jan 6, 2016)

Does anyone have any knowledge of small (possibly pole-mountable) wind turbines? I'm working on a project that involves a remotely-located PLC that does not have access to hard-wired power. I've already spec'd a few possibilities for solar panels, but the location the PLC will be located is prone to overcast skies, so it would be beneficial to have an alternate power source if the light is too weak for the panels to provide any power.

I don't have any firm details on the exact model of PLC (I believe it will be a SCADAPack), so I'm not positive about the amount of power to be supplied, but I was wondering if anyone had any experience or knowdledge of this kind of thing.


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## backstay (Feb 3, 2011)

I put up a 850 watt Bergey wind turbine on a 84 ft tilt up pole. 

http://bergey.com/documents/2012/03/excel-1-tilt-tower-installation-manual.pdf

Here's what it looked like after a direct lightning strike.


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## psgama (Oct 26, 2015)

Air 30 wind turbine a sunsaver 20L and 2 x250W 24v solar panels. 

4 heavy duty solar batteries and away you go. The draw on a scada pack, a Floboss or anything like that is very minimal. A system like that with a low voltage solenoid and a radio should be good for 7 day autonomy just with the solar, the wind turbine helps everything along nicely.

We have 3 installed here in northern BC on a pilot project and have had 0 problems all winter. Our draw is extremely low and the batteries can be charged in two hours of direct sunlight.


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## psgama (Oct 26, 2015)

This is what we've built and put in. It's a wind rated skid with Solar Panels and a Weatherproof twist lock connection for optional wind turbine.

They work slick.


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## mpetro (Jan 6, 2016)

backstay said:


> I put up a 850 watt Bergey wind turbine on a 84 ft tilt up pole.
> 
> http://bergey.com/documents/2012/03/excel-1-tilt-tower-installation-manual.pdf
> 
> Here's what it looked like after a direct lightning strike.


Yum, nice and golden brown



psgama said:


> This is what we've built and put in. It's a wind rated skid with Solar Panels and a Weatherproof twist lock connection for optional wind turbine.
> 
> They work slick.


Good to know, thanks for the ideas. The PLC will only be sending information once an hour between radio towers, so it shouldn't be too power intensive.


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## JRaef (Mar 23, 2009)

There are a lot of really simple inexpensive small (as in low power) marine wind generators that are used to float batteries or power radios. The nice thing about those is that they are made to sustain high wind speeds without damage.

I used this one on a small SCADA panel once, mostly because I had a friend with one on his boat and it was very quiet, a problem I knew we were going to have with the neighbors. It's rated for 145MPH winds!

https://www.emarineinc.com/categories/Airdolphin-Marine-Wind-Turbine-1000-Watt


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## telsa (May 22, 2015)

My two cents:

Skip the wind power scheme -- and just lay in plenty of back-up battery power.

Even overcast skies produce solar power.

It's better to just over size the collectors...

Solid state -- you can't beat it.

You can always have the system wired to send out an alarm if things get weird.


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## mpetro (Jan 6, 2016)

Thanks for the input guys. I'm already prepared to pitch a solar-only option to the engineer in charge, but he might want wind regardless. Just want to be able to give him some options.


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## triden (Jun 13, 2012)

mpetro said:


> Does anyone have any knowledge of small (possibly pole-mountable) wind turbines? I'm working on a project that involves a remotely-located PLC that does not have access to hard-wired power. I've already spec'd a few possibilities for solar panels, but the location the PLC will be located is prone to overcast skies, so it would be beneficial to have an alternate power source if the light is too weak for the panels to provide any power.
> 
> I don't have any firm details on the exact model of PLC (I believe it will be a SCADAPack), so I'm not positive about the amount of power to be supplied, but I was wondering if anyone had any experience or knowdledge of this kind of thing.


We run SCADApacks on methanol fuel cells all over the place. Check out an Efoy if it's in your budget. http://www.efoy.com/ Simark controls is our local distributer.


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## emtnut (Mar 1, 2015)

psgama said:


> This is what we've built and put in. It's a wind rated skid with Solar Panels and a Weatherproof twist lock connection for optional wind turbine.
> 
> They work slick.


The angle on those panels !! .. You in the north pole ??


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## glen1971 (Oct 10, 2012)

emtnut said:


> The angle on those panels !! .. You in the north pole ??


It looks like he's close. Northern BC.. I'm also guessing they don't want a large accumulation of snow on them...


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## psgama (Oct 26, 2015)

Might as well be the North Pole! Northern BC Canada, several hours up the Alaska highway. Lol. Snow accumulation is the reason for the pitch of the panels.


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## emtnut (Mar 1, 2015)

psgama said:


> Might as well be the North Pole! Northern BC Canada, several hours up the Alaska highway. Lol. Snow accumulation is the reason for the pitch of the panels.


The 2 different pitches on them .... One works better in summer, one best in winter? Or one almost vertical to ensure no snow ever !


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## CADPoint (Jul 5, 2007)

There's a nice inactive load chart on the link JRaef gave. There's also a output
chart from wind input.

You could find wind charts of annual averages for your area.

The start up for wind generation is at 5.5 MPH for this equipment, which has changed a lot with technology.


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