wind power links and info

[medeak]

would be most appreciated. Seriously contemplating wind farm leasing land from ranchers in a designated wind area... raptor area however...

[phantom power]

1. Are you thinking of purchasing the wind turbines and...

leasing rights to install on somebody else's property?

[medeak]

5. at present yes n/t

[htuttle]

2. From a practical point of view...

...you might want to start by searching out wind power equipment sellers/installers in your local area. Wind power equipment is pretty similar everywhere (though there are a few innovations here and there), so what's going to be most important in actually getting the turbines up is what you can actually obtain. Your profile doesn't have any location information, so I couldn't look it up.

The other important practical issue is what sorts of arrangements would be available for selling the power to your local grid -- I doubt you'll want to string power cables from your leased land to your house. :D A local wind power contractor would probably know this, though.

It's an interesting endeavor, though. I wonder if anyone has ever put together a business plan for this sort of small-scale private power plant? If you could find a way to do without hiring full-time 'staff' (say, with only 6-10 turbines), you might actually make money on it. It's not like wind power 'plants' need to be monitored on-site 24/7 like most other power plants. Automated remote monitoring should be good enough.

[medeak]

3. Utilities have to buy "green" in next 6 years

and there is a large utility company nearby buying power from out of state.

[htuttle]

7. One final general business tip from me

After helping to run a couple of businesses, both successful and defunct, I've learned that it's far better to borrow $200,000 and succeed than try to do something on the cheap for $100,000 and fail.

You're probably going to have to get a loan to accomplish something like this anyway, so spend the money for equipment with low maintenance and long lifetime, versus skimping on equipment to keep your initial costs down. Don't go overboard though. I'd look especially for stuff that lasts a long time versus getting slightly higher efficiency. With no staff, and only contracted maintenance, you're going to want to minimize trips up the poles to work on the turbines. We recently paid somebody to climb up our radio tower at work to reattach a cable that was flapping, and it cost several hundred bucks. Of course, that was at 110 feet up, much taller than most wind turbines.

Of course, you could also give it go using nothing but salvage parts and used generators -- but that's a whole different strategy requiring much higher maintenance (and probably wouldn't make as much sense on leased land with a fixed cost).

[skids]

4. This unit might be doable for an individual investment...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115x32369

but it won't be "raptor safe." Anything that turns slowly enough to be bird friendly is likely going to be a rather large investment. We're talking steel reinforced concrete constructed on-site and sunk into the ground:

http://www.eastbayri.com/story/342492204422093.php
http://hullwind.org/images.php

[medeak]

6. thanks for the links

exploring them all... have quite a bit of capital to invest but scary at our age. Husband is mechanical contractor with parkinson's and thinking of something he can do with disability.

We have wind maps in the state but any more links and info would be helpful.

found some "cages" to protect from raptors (sort of like household fans) just don't know the economics of it all...if it will all pencil out.

[skids]

8. Really you should work with someone...

... who has been in the field for a while.

Home power setups are one thing -- running a power plant is quite different.

http://www.listnlook.com/renewable.html
http://www.odysen.com/directory/locations/index.php?L=North%20America-United%20States
http://www.greenenergyohio.org/page.cfm?pageId=314

[medeak]

9. thank you.....

I need as much info as possible..

husband is brilliant and has many patents...one for diesel fuel recycling facility that we ship all over the world.

any more info would be much appreciated.