Are The Claims Of the Sellers Of Micro Roof Top Wind Turbines Going To Stack Up In Reality?
by Stuart
at 2006-10-05 16:58:15
(Forum::Public::Wind)
I just read this very extravagant claim on a companies website describing the output of smaller micro wind turbines.
"Do wind turbines make financial sense? Yes. A well installed high quality turbine has an operational life of 25 years. As a rough rull of thumb in the UK, a 1kw turbine will generate £200-£450 of electricity a year - paying back your investment in 3-7 years."
I don't understand the figures here. If one assumes that you can sell you electricity for 7pence and get an additional 3 pence for the ROCs then you can earn an average of 10pence per Kwh. To earn the expected payback of £450 would mean production of 4500 Kwhs a year. This is a very debatable claim. As there are only 8760 (24*365) hours in a year, this seems to assume the turbine would be operating at peak output half the time. This is nonsense.
I support small-scale machines and wish more people would have them, but don't want people to feel let down by unrealistic claims of their "rule of thumb output"
--
Stuart
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