THE CULTURE ARTIST: Microwind Turbines
By Chuck Hall
The power grid in the United States is ancient and in serious need of repair. One of the challenges facing President-elect Obama is what to do about an energy grid in danger of collapse. A recent study by the Department of Energy demonstrates that the demand for power in the United States is growing 25% faster than the power grid. This will spell out disaster in the coming years. One option for fixing this problem is to conduct a massive re-build of the nation's power grid. Many people, including Obama, have embraced this option. There is, however, another option for those who would just as soon not put their energy future into the hands of a bureaucracy. The average home in the Western world uses about 10,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity per year. By using extensive energy conservation measures, this demand can be reduced to as little as 1,000 kilowatt-hours per year. These savings are much easier to implement in a home that is being built from scratch, but a traditional stick-built home can also take advantage of some energy-saving techniques (for example, extra insulation, or CFL lighting, or installing a new geothermal heat pump).
The reason I mention average power consumption is because the less power you need, the more choices you have in energy independence. To me, the ultimate in energy independence is to live off the grid. Those on the grid are only as safe as the weakest link on the grid. Those who have stand-alone power systems don't have to worry about the grid at all. The control is in your hands.
There are many ways to live off-the-grid. The options are growing all the time. One of the more recent is micro wind turbines.
Conventional wind turbine technology, until recently, hasn't been very practical for most people who don't live in a rural environment. Wind turbines can be bulky, noisy and difficult to install. That changed when researchers at Hong Kong University developed Motorwind. The Motorwind system consists of a series of ultra-small wind turbines linked by a gear system. The rotor on each turbine is 25 cm, or about 10 inches. A string of these turbines can generate power with wind speeds as low as 2 meters/second, or around 5 miles per hour.
The turbines can be linked together in almost any configuration that will fit your home. A row of eight turbines currently sells for around $150. This price may decrease as they are mass-produced.
How much power can these turbines produce? In trials at Hong Kong University, turbines with one square meter of surfacte area (approximately 18 turbines) can produce about 131 kilowatt-hours (kWh) per year in a 5 mph wind. This is where the implementation of energy-saving technologies comes in. If you have the average home that uses 10,000 kWh/year, you'd need about 76 micro turbines and a steady 5 mph wind to produce all your power needs. If, however, you are able to reduce your consumption to the aforementioned 1,000 kWh per year, you would only need about 8 turbines to meet your needs! Most people would fall between these two figures. You would also need some sort of storage medium to store electricity for times when the wind doesn't blow, and an inverter to convert the power from the storage medium from DC to AC power.
While this may still not be a viable option for some, as alternative technologies continue to progress, stand-alone home power sources are moving closer to becoming a reality for the majority.
For more information on Motorwind, visit: http://www.inhabitat.com/2007/03/21/micro-wind-turbines-small-size-big-impact.
Chuck Hall's latest book, Invasion of the Vegans! is now available at the Culture Artist website at www.cultureartist.org. You may contact Chuck by email at: chuck@cultureartist.org.
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