WIND is created by ineven heating of the surface of the earth. Wind turbines harness the kinetic energy in the wind and convert it into electrical energy. This energy can be used to power your home and work facilities.

ENVIRONMENTAL

Wind is an abundant and naturally occurring resource. Wind energy is one of the cleanest ways to produce electricty. Very little processing needs to be done to convert it into free and clean energy. Operation of a wind turbines produces no pollution with no emissions, exessive noise or waste heat by-product. Particularly with mini wind generators lacking most of the detrimental effects of large-scale wind farms, wind can be harvested with minimal impact on the environment, a very important factor in meeting our increasing energy needs. Mini wind systems can be deployed for distributed generation (right where the power is consumed) and thus save on wasteful transmission (there is up to 50% loss of energy in the grid alone) as well as prevent visual impact and EMF radiation from grid lines.

ECONOMICAL

Wind is an inexhaustible resource. Operation and maintenance expenses can easily be forecast; especially with high-quality turbine systems designed to operate with no scheduled maintenance. Robust design and an expected life of 25 to 30 years provide added economic feasibility.

YOUR BENEFITS

You will enjoy economic as well as environmental benefits from wind energy. Wind farms contribute energy cost savings for owners by offsetting power requirements from the grid. It is the most cost efficient way to produce electricity on your own, and with government incentives and rebates, the payback period on a mini wind system can be as little as nine years in some locations.

At miniwindsystems.com, we are paying attention to detail: as buyers sometimes find it difficult to get the right accessories (large-diameter DC cabling, DPDT switches that can take sufficient current, fuses & more), we have come up with several turn-key sets for our most popular mini wind turbines. Click the links for micro inverters, fuses, high-current DPDT switches or larger-diameter cables and more.

The highest mini wind FIT in the world is offered by the Canadian province of Nova Scotia since September 19th, 2011, but with a twist: the province has skipped solar energy altogether (not just PV but even highly efficient solar thermal and CSP) which has rightly been called ‘outright criminal’ by a local Halifax, NS newspaper; also, the ‘ComFIT’ scheme is limited to community projects only and thus excludes mainstream participants. It seems the province tried to make an ‘impressive program as cheap as possible’ and that some learning is still required in Nova Scotia. We do hope that current flaws are not permanent and that improvements will follow soon.

The Nova Scotia ComFIT appears to be a work in progress anyway with numerous updates and revamps being made already. Initially, the small wind band was even higher (at Can$0.66 per KWh) and has already been significantly reduced. We hope that reasonable additions will include an attractive FIT rate for solar technologies too and would like to stress that, although being less famous for their sunshine than Nova Scotia itself, even the U. K does have solar incentives including a very promising solar thermal FIT equivalent of 18p per KWh.

The miniwindsystems.com website has been upgraded to provide significantly better response times even during higher-volume traffic. With new — and despite higher CPU clock speeds and overall better specs even more energy-efficient — hardware, we have addressed past performance issues and hope to provide a better user experience for everyopne interested in Mini Wind & Solar Technologies.

The beauty of a play in residential-scale Green Energy is its capability of hedging against both a general economic downturn and an increase in electricity prices at one go. Both are likely to happen rather soon (and yes, even though it may sound contradictory from a conventional economic point of view to have both a severe recession or even deflation and an increase in energy prices at roughly the same time, this is still a very likely scenario). The supporting fundamentals for both are in place, it’s just a matter of time for them to materialize.

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Q: Could you kindly give a comparison of your system to the double helix system of home wind power generators. I have been hoping to find a system that combines art, color, wild life protection and good efficient engineering design in one package. (submitted by Adelle Jang)

A: The system you mention seems to be a Vertical Axis system. We only have one very small VAWT among our offerings (50 W rated capacity). Reason: VAWT are still mostly in an experimental stage, many horzaontal modesl are already… tested and …proven. Among them this http://www.miniwindsystems.com/?page_id=210 (“Airdolphin” — frankly, our least-favored one in some aspects, because it’s actually VERY efficient engineering, on one hand, comes at a HEFTY MANUFACTURER LIST PRICE on the other)!

Wildlife protection is, actually, not much different between VAWTs and HAWTs: even a small horzontal (propeller-style) turbine is (a) seen by birds and (b) heard by birds and bats and can therfore be avoided. Existing residual casualties among them DO also occur with windows, cars etc, and such residual fatalities cannot be avoided anyway. (Cars and conventional power etc poses a far more significant risk to bird and bat populations than a small turbine when the IMMEDIATE shift toward Green energy is done in due course and not postponed till the point where climate change severely affects animals, plants, and all of us.) Geese have been killed in the LaGuardia/Hudson river plane accident too, but aircraft are still not outlawed.Though I admit that I wouldn’t want to die in a trubine (of any design) the way some animals continue to do, that “wildlife argument” is sort of counter-productive when bearing the big picture in mind, for it means humanity would continue on that rotten energy path of coal, nuclear and oil which has to be left RIGHT NOW.

Art & color are also incorporated into “Airdolphin” with different colors available as a premium feature, see http://www.miniwindsystems.com/?page_id=210

I apologize for only comparing every of your points (above) to that Airdolphin model. I did this because it comes closest to most of the issues you raised. I am, actually, not overly into only touting our own products and would rather consider a broader approach but I, obviously, do not have so many details at hand for some other products I, quite hoestly, don’t know the first thing about — and it would be dishonest of me to pretend otherwise. We do, however, offer a broader view of thing on http://www.miniwindsystems.com/ where we publish a selection of wider news on the subject (whether or not the items are offered at this time or not). You may want to have a look there, too. We are trying to sell products, but we do so because we are also idealists and enthusiastic about the opportunities for (necessary) change available on this basis.

We are very much in favor of helix-style systems and VAWT in general and we are already working on that subject in order to come up with a feasible VAWT solution in the future. As this may take some time (1.5+ years at the very least), we recommend going for existing models for the time being.

Also, incentives programs (tax breaks, government subsidies or even FITs) are available NOW, and as always with fiscal programs, they can be chnaged anytime, even retrospectively (this would even be constitutional in the fiscal policy field)! So this might be a further incentive of ‘taking the money and run’ (and also let your own system run) as soon as possible — on top of the actual benefit of avoiding new carbon emmissions today and not tomorrow.

A revolutionary design, patented blades and an extremely high output ratio — these are the main features of a micro wind turbine truly “Made in Germany” but without the associated cost of most of the VW models people put in their driveways these days.

The BreezeBreaker 500 is under 5 ft (1.5 m) in diameter and costs under $1500. Developed by a 19-year old inventor from Hannover, Germany, this turbine has the lowest weight-to-output ratio in the world and undercuts Japan’s Zephyr Airdolphin Z1000-25 and Airdolphin GTO™ “next generation” models by roughly one third.

It did not take very long for the “next generation” to start looking like a rather old one: BreezeBreaker 500 by 19 years old Fritz Unger does not only sport a sensational weight-to-output ratio (just 11.875 grams per Watt of rated power) but also makes clever use of rotor physics: 2-blade designs are generally far superior to more blades as 2-blade rotors reduce blade turbulence and suffer significantly less wind energy loss.

Interested? Leave a reply below or e-mail mwt@miniwindsystems.com, and we will get back to you with full manufacturer details.

Fancy a mini wind turbine? Like to save a bundle on energy cost or even make money by “selling” back — that is, export or feed-out electricity– to the grid? Sounds good?

Well it is — unless you get tricked into buying one of those attrative, cheap, and too-good-to-be-true junk turbines or dream up the impossible. Both are going to not work and will only cost you money. They will also give mini wind turbines or Home Power in general a bad name. Educate yourself before you buy! Be aware of the physical constaints and don’t ever assume that it might be possible to spin some little wheel from China up on your roof for a few hundred bucks or so. Never ever assume to even make lots of money from a junk turbine either.

It is just not that easy.

There’s no such thing as a free lunch, this applies as much to Home Power generation as to any other area this phrase has been coined for. Do not believe any adverts touting cheap or apparently “affordable” products that will cover all your electricity needs or even promise you to effortlessly cash in big on “excess energy” exported to the grid. If it sounds “too good to be true”, it usually is. If it promises spectacular percentage returns, slash a few zeros. Don’t overestimate the potential of Home Power. Don’t expect to get rich quick, get rid of all your worries or make a lot of money with your mini wind turbine.

This does not mean it can’t be done — you need to know what you’re doing though, and you just won’t get it for “cheap”.

First of all, you need to live in a suitable location or at least have a chance to set up a proper tower for your mini wind project. Not all kinds of “wind” are suitable just because you can feel it in your face. The energy that can be harvested from the wind is better in “clean” wind situations. Buildings, trees and terrain shape may slow down the wind or cause turbulence. Slow wind, obviously, decreases potential energy output and may “cost” you some of your return. Turbulences do the same but also cause additional stress on the turbine, decrease its lifetime and, that way, may cost you even more. Overly simplified and as a rule of thumb, a mini wind turbine needs to sit about 30 feet above any obstacle within a 300 feet range. To get good results, a 40 foot tower would be needed in most areas. Unless for very special tubine designs or in a particularly suitable spot, roof-top deployment is not suitable.

This is why people say “flying” a mini wind turbine.

Flying is expensive — this also applies to flying your mini wind turbine. A suitable tower may very well cost as much as the turbine itself. Still, this is a good investment as it would be a waste of money to use a tower that is too low: if feeding-out electricity to the grid is your objective, this would be uneconomical and unnecessarily prolong the payback period of your equipment or make your mini wind project inefficient by design.

The bottom line is: never buy any garbage turbine from China or your average sweat-shop economy across the ocean, over alibaba.com, or eBay or you’ll lose money. Never use a tower that is too low or you’ll lose a good part of your profits (or the chance to make any profits at all). You don’t find suitable turbines in a local garden center either. Educate yourself before you spend any serious money, read a few books and know what you are doing before you buy your equipment. If you do it right, you may be able to make some money or even come up with very decent returns percentagewise. The key is doing your homework and knowing your numbers (which includes doing a proper wind survey). Then, Mini Wind may indeed turn out to be what you always were looking for.

The U. S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has ruled that U. S. states are free to enact their own feed-in tariff policies. This effectively clears the way for Feed-In Tariffs in the U. S. at state level similar to the ones in Germany or in the Province of Ontario. This decision by the chief regulatory body is expected to provide a further boost to Home Power and Renewable Energy as a whole on top of the already positive sentiment among U. S. consumers.

Latest polls show that up to 91% of consumers are in favor of Home Power generation and would be interested to set up their own systems sooner rather than later. The U. S. small wind energy sector has already experienced a 15% annual growth over the last years and is expected to accelerate even further. Equally bright are the prospects for Solar Power with improved technologies in solar thermal and CSP (concentrated solar power) as well as PV (photovoltaic or solar electric) generation.

The beauty of a Play in Residential-Scale Green Energy is its capability of hedging you against both a general economic downturn and an increase in electricity prices at one go. Both are likely to happen rather soon (and yes, even though it may sound contradictory from a conventional economic point of view to have both a severe recession or even deflation and an increase in energy prices at roughly the same time, this is still a very likely scenario). The supporting fundamentals for both are in place, it’s just a matter of time for them to materialize.

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