WilderSueden
2022-11-27 09:39:33
- #1
The problem with small wind turbines is
1. expensive
2. low output compared to photovoltaic
3. low-altitude wind in residential areas is turbulent and heavily slowed down
4. maintenance effort due to moving parts
5. vibrations/noise from moving parts (especially problematic when mounted on the house)
6. wear and tear from moving parts
And yes, there are ones with fewer moving parts, but that comes at the expense of the already poor efficiency. Economies of scale are pronounced in wind power, and downsizing brings many inverse economies of scale. In contrast, the same photovoltaic module is simply installed tens of thousands of times in large systems. Problem 3 cannot fundamentally be solved anyway.
Basically, for the foreseeable future (at least 10 years), a photovoltaic system will almost always outperform a wind turbine for a single-family house. I’ll also venture to say that even storage for photovoltaic will outperform a wind turbine. And then we are looking at an investment of the third order.
1. expensive
2. low output compared to photovoltaic
3. low-altitude wind in residential areas is turbulent and heavily slowed down
4. maintenance effort due to moving parts
5. vibrations/noise from moving parts (especially problematic when mounted on the house)
6. wear and tear from moving parts
And yes, there are ones with fewer moving parts, but that comes at the expense of the already poor efficiency. Economies of scale are pronounced in wind power, and downsizing brings many inverse economies of scale. In contrast, the same photovoltaic module is simply installed tens of thousands of times in large systems. Problem 3 cannot fundamentally be solved anyway.
Basically, for the foreseeable future (at least 10 years), a photovoltaic system will almost always outperform a wind turbine for a single-family house. I’ll also venture to say that even storage for photovoltaic will outperform a wind turbine. And then we are looking at an investment of the third order.