Wind Turbines

[Moghrey Mie]

Has anybody bought one of those wind turbines from B and Q? If so how did you get on?

Is it difficult to get planning permission?

[oldmanxfella]

Has anybody bought one of those wind turbines from B and Q? If so how did you get on?

Is it difficult to get planning permission?

 

I had a conversation with them when they started selling them and they were a bit vague on the planning aspects.

 

I believe that you also get screwed by the MEA who have some ludicroius process by which you have to link up to sell power back to the grid at a cost which negates some of the savings.

 

With that and the question mark on planning it looked like too much hassle to me.

[mollag]

Been talking to the MEA recently and the chances of selling back to them are very small.

the turbines would be fun, running thru a battery pack and inverter but its not a cheap option.

If you installed a break before make changeover switch then you could run your house on battery power for say 1 day a week with no need to have any MEA involvement.

[Wake Up Call]

I know 2 people who have wind turbines and they are very happy with the performance. They were not B+Q turbines and were bought through the net.

It will take some time to claw back the money from reduced electricity bills but the satisfaction of generating your own electricity seems to outweigh any real budget matters.

 

Just imagine if the massive amount of money that was used by the Electricity Authority was spent on providing a solar panel and a wind turbine for every house on the Island? (I think it was a 100 million pound 'mistake' that has resulted in the crazy increase in all our bills)

If the same cash had been invested in Manx people's home energy projects, or the money was invested in a wind farm, we would be paying probably half of what we are now.

 

It would mean less money for our Government sponsored Electric (Monopoly) provider.

 

Power to the people I say.

[Slim]

Just imagine if the massive amount of money that was used by the Electricity Authority was spent on providing a solar panel and a wind turbine for every house on the Island? (I think it was a 100 million pound 'mistake' that has resulted in the crazy increase in all our bills)

If the same cash had been invested in Manx people's home energy projects, or the money was invested in a wind farm, we would be paying probably half of what we are now.

 

Agree, but it only really works if you can sell the power back to the grid, which you can't currently.

[triskelion]

With the technology currently available, self-generation is but the fevered dream of a mad-man. You don't get 'screwed' by the MEA if you want to sell the excess: It is simply expensive to set up and in actual fact the electricity you are looking to sell is essentially worthless, as the Authority already produces everything we need and more and you only tend to generate excess when no one else really needs it. If the Island had an energy storage facility then there might be some potential in it, but such a thing is some way off, as most of these are rubbish too at the minute. This is without going into the technicalities of maintaining stability in the grid, which is really complex and I don't understand it (or need to).

 

There are also problems with wind turbines in that most houses are not built to take the strain they place on them structurally - It isn't a matter of just screwing it to the chimney stack. Getting this checked out can be really expensive. Then there are there rigmaroles of the planning system.

 

Also there is the problem that they generally don't work very well at all in urban areas due to the impact of such an environment on winds.

 

Even from the environmental angle, a recent study showed that they produce more Co2 (through production and maintenance) than they actually save.

 

In the end, most of the energy used in the home is for space and water heating, and there are more effective technologies available in this area than there are in micro-generation. So yeah, you would better off (once you've made sure your house is as insulated as it can get) looking into getting solar hot-water heating panel or even a ground-source heat pump or something.

[mollag]

What he said! Self generation would be for fun only, no economy there.

 

heat pumps are fab, air to air is the most common but sophisticated systems are available albeit a tad expensive

 

MEA will only allow self generation with a no export clause at present.

[molly]

What he said! Self generation would be for fun only, no economy there.

 

heat pumps are fab, air to air is the most common but sophisticated systems are available albeit a tad expensive

 

MEA will only allow self generation with a no export clause at present.

I know a guy who lives in main road glen vine who has a large bank of solar voltic panels and he has an arrangement to to credit back what he produces. thing is it cost him well over 25K to install. He is the firt to admit that it is more of a hobbie than anything else.

[keyboarder]

it cost him well over 25K to install. He is the firt to admit that it is more of a hobbie than anything else.

But pioneers like him move the technology forward ultimately making things cheaper to produce - anyone remember when CD writers for the home were £3000 or so? Not that long ago.

[mollag]

What he said! Self generation would be for fun only, no economy there.

 

heat pumps are fab, air to air is the most common but sophisticated systems are available albeit a tad expensive

 

MEA will only allow self generation with a no export clause at present.

I know a guy who lives in main road glen vine who has a large bank of solar voltic panels and he has an arrangement to to credit back what he produces. thing is it cost him well over 25K to install. He is the firt to admit that it is more of a hobbie than anything else.

 

Afraid its that was then, this is now,

my recent info from the MEA

 

I have listed below the main requirements of Engineering Recommendation G59 protection which will be required when your generator is connected in parallel with the MEA system. MEA would have to undertake some network studies to confirm that the system is suitable for connecting a generator in parallel before that connection can be made. We would also like to witness test the first synchronisation of the generator with the MEA network to confirm that the systems are working properly.

Our private generation tariffs are currently being reviewed, so unfortunately I don’t have the full details at this time. I am told that this information should be available within the next few weeks,

 

I was also told it would be a no export contract, ie no selly backey to the MEA, tawts!

[Slim]

With the technology currently available, self-generation is but the fevered dream of a mad-man.Even from the environmental angle, a recent study showed that they produce more Co2 (through production and maintenance) than they actually save.

 

In the end, most of the energy used in the home is for space and water heating, and there are more effective technologies available in this area than there are in micro-generation. So yeah, you would better off (once you've made sure your house is as insulated as it can get) looking into getting solar hot-water heating panel or even a ground-source heat pump or something.

 

Pretty much agree with you, although it still may be worth doing if you can afford it just to avoid using non renewables. A ground source heat pump powered by a solar panel example.

 

It's getting close to be wortwhile though, there's been some very interesting advances in solar technology recently. I recon in ten years if the oil price continues to rise and the cost and size of solar continues to drop, you'll see an awful lot more.

[WTF]

ask yourself, are the government going to give planning permission for items designed to allow you, NOT to buy their expensive electric, which they need you to buy to lessen the huge dept they allowed to happen? and the more who opt out would only put the cost for the rest up. having our own power station is about keeping people in jobs rather than cheaper electric from the undersea cable from the UK. it would have been cheaper to pay off the staff that deal with the generation side of things and never have built the power station. just keep the line maintenance guys on. even the billing could have come from the UK. but instead we have our own expensive job keeping effort, whoopee do. same as bread and milk and eggs etc. and its called an 'economy', yeah , right.

[mojomonkey]

ask yourself, are the government going to give planning permission for items designed to allow you, NOT to buy their expensive electric, which they need you to buy to lessen the huge dept they allowed to happen? and the more who opt out would only put the cost for the rest up. having our own power station is about keeping people in jobs rather than cheaper electric from the undersea cable from the UK. it would have been cheaper to pay off the staff that deal with the generation side of things and never have built the power station. just keep the line maintenance guys on. even the billing could have come from the UK. but instead we have our own expensive job keeping effort, whoopee do. same as bread and milk and eggs etc. and its called an 'economy', yeah , right.

 

That's just pure paranoid bollocks. Can you give one real example of a domestic scale wind turbine being refused planning permission. The use of renewable energy is supported by the planning department for obvious reasons. The only reason that you don't see more them is the cost versus benefit issues that have already been discussed in this topic.

[molly]

ask yourself, are the government going to give planning permission for items designed to allow you, NOT to buy their expensive electric, which they need you to buy to lessen the huge dept they allowed to happen? and the more who opt out would only put the cost for the rest up. having our own power station is about keeping people in jobs rather than cheaper electric from the undersea cable from the UK. it would have been cheaper to pay off the staff that deal with the generation side of things and never have built the power station. just keep the line maintenance guys on. even the billing could have come from the UK. but instead we have our own expensive job keeping effort, whoopee do. same as bread and milk and eggs etc. and its called an 'economy', yeah , right.

 

The unions did have a big say when it came to the new powerstation, quite ironic that the jobs they were trying to save were lost in the end via early retirement and redundancy etc.

 

Word is the MEA are recruting maintenance staff again though as they intend to be generating more power at peel and ramsey to sell back to uk as the uk grid may be short this winter due to failing nuclear stations. It may not be such a bad thing to have our own power generation station instead of being in the hands of the uk.

[mollag]

The MEA 's reluctance to support self generation is based mainly on large kw generation by folks who are pissed at the horrendous charges per KW/Va levied by the supply authority, Ronnie Hotchkiss for example. Poor old small generation willl suffer by association

 

 

three years ago i had the MEA upgrade a 3 phase main, from 60 to 80kw, cost---£1800.00

Actual work by MEA? replace 3 fuses with 3 larger ones---1 man, 1 hr max. They should wear masks..

 

 

Re the heat pumps, can you get photo panels that can regularly supply say 16a at 240v to drive a heat pump? or would it be thru a battery set up, seems a large demand. i am a bit out of touch though.