SD Wind Energy anyone?

I'm beginning to think we should file a petition to do away with November, December and January. Here in Michigan, our solar panels are almost useless as the endless days of dark gray skies won't allow enough sun through the clouds to do anything useful. My system can generate 75 to 80 kWh a day, but during the three horror months, I'm lucky to see 5 kWh.

But one thing we do have an abundance of during these dark days is wind.. whoa! do we have a lot of wind. 15 mph is considered a rather calm day during these dark months and I've seen entire week stretches with winds in the 20 mph+ range.

Researching real (key word = real) wind turbines, there are few choices for a quality unit. The one I'm investigating now is made by SD Wind Energy out of Scotland.

Anyone have any experience? They apparently have units in Antarctica. I contacted a US Sales rep today and got a price sheet. $25k (+shipping) for the 3kw grid-tied unit (complete package with towers and inverters)

No idea, but I like their homepage hype...

6000+ installations worldwide
30" years Expertise in small Wind Turbine Design.

Not detailed, but you can see various installations:


The SD6 is certified by ICC-SWCC, and there aren't many on that list.

SD3 is about 2X the diameter of your typical micro-turbine, so there's some real potential there.

@OzSolar ?

Yes, it is wind season, usually lasts into March. Tough though as speeds are not very consistent, with strong gusts that mean the turbine has to be furled most of the time. I think wind appeals to people that like to tinker and solve problems, and solar is just pretty much "set and forget".

sunshine_eggo said:

No idea, but I like their homepage hype...

6000+ installations worldwide
30" years Expertise in small Wind Turbine Design.

Not detailed, but you can see various installations:

Case Studies

With over 30 years operation and more than 7,000 wind turbine installations in over 70 countries around the world, we are built on expertise.

sd-windenergy.com

The SD6 is certified by ICC-SWCC, and there aren't many on that list.

SD3 is about 2X the diameter of your typical micro-turbine, so there's some real potential there.

@OzSolar ?

Click to expand...

Looks like someone has dusted off the ill fated Proven and brought it back. Down wind machine, fascinating design, however the ones I was around were horrible underperformers as in 1/10th of the expected kWh and that was after years of datalogging. I was called in to troubleshoot a few installs. They were awesome sites around Casper, WY.

Maybe these new guys are doing something the guys before them couldn't do after trying for around 20 years? How's that saying go... "those that don't remember the past...."

Quote from Hugh Piggott's blog.

"I was a big supporter of the Proven wind turbine in the 1990s. It’s built like a tank in contrast to so many flimsy products in the small wind world. But my enthusiasm for the company waned gradually as I witnessed their exaggerated claims and heard from their many unhappy customers (during lengthy development of new products). In recent years they got a big cash injection and became even more arrogant. I can’t feel much sympathy for the company management, but I am sorry for the workers, the dealers, and even more so for the customers, who have already suffered far too much."

sunshine_eggo said:

The SD6 is certified by ICC-SWCC, and there aren't many on that list.

Click to expand...

Take a minute to check out this thread and see how much value you want to assign to SWCC.

Edit: And I didn't mean that as a challenge, just couldn't think of a better way to say. Cheers

MurphyGuy said:

Anyone have any experience? They apparently have units in Antarctica. I contacted a US Sales rep today and got a price sheet. $25k (+shipping) for the 3kw grid-tied unit (complete package with towers and inverters)

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My request before I even considered that type of money would be that they point me to any kWh data, live, daily and monthly and the contact information of at least 3 owners with a few years under thier belt. If they balked at that I think you'd know.

Don't take this as a recommendation but if that's your budget then I suggest you keep your eye on eBay for while. A less than 10 year old 10kW Bergey shows up every now and then complete with tower for $15k or less. Normally they are in need of a new set of blades as the customer when faced with whatever it costs nowadays (used to be at least $4K just for the blades plus labor) decides they've had enough of of it.

OzSolar said:

Take a minute to check out this thread and see how much value you want to assign to SWCC.

Edit: And I didn't mean that as challenge, just couldn't think of a better way to say. Cheers

SWCC Certified Wind Turbines - Be Careful

So I went down a road today. SWCC lets manufacturers self certify. The FAA let Boeing self certify the 737 Max and we all know how that turned out. If you're one of the folks that throws out the SWCC certification as something to look for please do some more research before you inadvertently...

diysolarforum.com

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Even with the 737MAX as an example, I'm not swayed. I'm in aviation, and I deal with the FAA on the design and manufacturing side. Nothing is perfect. We're not as big as Boeing and don't have our own ODA, but it's actually very hard to push a non-compliance through unless there's just no oversight at all and complicity at every level - which is exceedingly rare.

I'm not going to hold the SWCC to the same level as the FAA, but the fact that test standards exist, and SWCC inspects the test setup causes me to assign more meaning to a listed unit vs. the dozens of companies out there that hide behind marketing and sell shit that always disappoints because it's so misleading.

I'm also partial to Bergey, so any time I see them referenced, I take notice. Nothing to do with the wind turbines. Karl Bergey was my prof for several aircraft design classes while I was pursuing my engineering degree at OU.

OzSolar said:

My request before I even considered that type of money would be that they point me to any kWh data, live, daily and monthly and the contact information of at least 3 owners with a few years under thier belt. If they balked at that I think you'd know.

Don't take this as a recommendation but if that's your budget then I suggest you keep your eye on eBay for while. A less than 10 year old 10kW Bergey shows up every now and then complete with tower for $15k or less. Normally they are in need of a new set of blades as the customer when faced with whatever it costs nowadays (used to be at least $4K just for the blades plus labor) decides they've had enough of of it.

Click to expand...

When I called their USA sales rep, he answered the phone on the 2nd ring. When I asked about price, he sent me the entire price sheet for the entire line.
I then asked about a performance curve (wind vs output) and he sent that along with the warranty information and a bunch of other documents (all in pdf format). And did this while on the phone with me.

So far so good. He also informed me that SDWE doesn't make their own towers and they purchase them from a company in Florida, and then he gave me the information to contact the tower manufacture myself to save money.

The first step (inquiry) went far better than expected. With most purchases of this type, the reps tend to dance around the prices until they have all YOUR information. This guy didn't do any of that.. he answered my questions directly and didn't ask anything about me except for my email to send the pdf files.

I don't think he'll have any issues with me requesting the 3 owners or any other reasonable requests, but at this point, I don't want to waste his time either since I just started doing research that is at a level above window shopping.

My plan is to put the turbine on a tilt tower.. raise it up in November when solar becomes a problem, and lower it back down at the end of February when the solar starts making energy again. I will probably build a shed with a retractable roof for it. I don't need wind power in the summer, we have so much solar energy I'm surprised the POCO's meter doesn't vibrate and glow.

Figuring the project will cost about $32,000, the investment at the end will be $22,400. That might be a bit more than I want to spend just for 3-1/2 months per year.

Note on your comment: Most wind turbine blade "wear and tear" takes place in the summer. The insects, pollen, and other dust, tend to impact the blades as they spin and wear them down. Since I plan to mostly use the turbine in the winter, its not really a concern.

This is why snow blowers don't have air filters on their carburetors.. winter air is very clean.

sunshine_eggo said:

I'm also partial to Bergey, so any time I see them referenced, I take notice. Nothing to do with the wind turbines. Karl Bergey was my prof for several aircraft design classes while I was pursuing my engineering degree at OU.

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That is really cool! I've met Karl several times over the years. Great guy and everyone spoke highly of him.

MurphyGuy said:

My plan is to put the turbine on a tilt tower.. raise it up in November when solar becomes a problem, and lower it back down at the end of February when the solar starts making energy again. I will probably build a shed with a retractable roof for it. I don't need wind power in the summer, we have so much solar energy I'm surprised the POCO's meter doesn't vibrate and glow

Click to expand...

Interesting approach. Kinda like a James Bond villain. "I have lasers pointed your capitals."

Never thought about winter air vs summer air but that's something I just learned.