Which turbine should I take - need an advice

[Janez Novak]

Hi everybody

I'll present you my plan for the near future: I'm going to buy a 50kW wind turbine, grid-connected, it will be connected to the national grid. I'll sell the produced energy to the operator (by contract). I'm from Slovenia (European Union, EEC).

Now, the problem is (one of them, but maybe the most important): which manufacturer should I choose. Better - which manufacturer would you suggest, as it has to have affordable price for 50kW turbine, but the product should be of the good quality at the same time.

I would prefer some European manufacturer, (or USA, Canada) but as they want something like 250 - 300.000 EUR for the turbine, I really ask my self if it's even worth to start such a business... With such a price, the costs would be then refunded in some twenty years. From this point of view, to start a business, it's better then to buy a CNC machine and produce machined parts for an industry and who cares for the green energy and CO2 reduction...

On the other side, there are Chinese manufacturers. I managed to receive some offers from them, the prices are lower. But, according to the feed-backs of the owners of Chinese turbines, it's better to avoid them, even if the prices are more "attractive".

So, does anybody have any suggestion, which manufacturer should I choose for 50kW turbine? Preferrably European, but even Chinese, any supplier that could be trusted and has a good feed-back from the users.

Thank you in advance for any comment or suggestion. :smile1:

JN

[Rob Beckers]

Hi Janez,

Welcome to the forum!

While I have little experience with turbines over 10kW, and can't recommend any particular brand, I would urge you to be very, very careful with Chinese turbines. Several of our customers have installed Chinese brand turbines of various sizes (2kW through 25kW - we were supply the inverters), and I am not aware of even a single success story. They all had issues, some resolvable, many fatal. They may be cheap, but unless you're planning to do your own R&D these are generally not mature products, more like 'prototypes' that need lots more work to be useful.

Hopefully someone else will chime in. Cor has more experience with what's available in Europe, you may want to send him a PM.

Cheers,

-RoB-

[Steven Fahey]

I may be a bit late in replying -

There are many turbines to choose from, and with your attitude to "build it yourself if you can't afford it," you may also consider buying a "used" turbine.

Paul Gipe addressed the subject in his book "Wind Power for Home, Farm, and Business" which will answer many of your questions.


This is going to sound cynical but...

For many years now, some companies have installed wind turbines as "green-wash" experiments, not really to suit any electricity need. Unfortunately they were located for the best public visibility, without consideration of the site, obstructions, or even the average wind speed in the area. After about 5 years they may no longer be keeping the things running, or have found that the public interest was less valuable than expected. If that's the case, they may be willing to sell to someone willing to remove it for them. An electric utility company near me has done this at their head offices. The turbines are sited among a number of factory and office buildings, on towers less than 15 meters tall. Useless. If the turbines in question weren't Skystreams, I would approach the company with an offer to take them off their hands!