Wind power, how much does a windmill cost?

I've always been fascinated by windmills and the fact that there are not more in use. I was wondering if anyone had any data on how much natural resources could be saved if every family had a windmill in their backyard. Could this help make us less dependent on oil overall and how mcuh money in the long run would this save the average family in electricity bills each year applying average speed of the windmill, I know in some areas it would be much stronger winds and in others less. Anybody have one or know the cost of a windmill and the thing that turns the windpower into elctricity?

www.bergey.com...

The $40,000 ballpark price for the Bergey Windpower Co.'s 10-kilowatt generator, including a power inverter and installation, is a big enough bite to discourage anyone, especially those who may not know how long they plan to live in the same place. [ Note: Mr. Sansome received a rebate of ~ $20,000 from the California Energy Commission. ]

Sansome has figured that his windmill will pay for itself in six to eight years. The life of the gadget is estimated to be 25 to 30 years, which equals a lot of free energy over a long period of time.

Southern California Edison representative Laura Rudison estimated more conservatively the span of time before the average homeowner would break even.

"When you really run the numbers, it may be 12 or 15 years," she said. [ if you ignore the CEC rebate ]

Rudison is the project manager for Edison's Net Metering Program, which does business with customers who generate their own electricity.

Because neither the wind nor the sun provide continuous sources of power, most of those who generate power from them also rely on Edison to provide power at night or on a calm day.

By using an electric meter that runs both backward and forward, the Net Metering Program allows small, private generators to barter the power they use for the power they generate on a one-to-one basis.

Thanks for the info. I know that back in the days when windmills were made and used to provide electricity they could not have cost that much, wonder what it would take to make your own if you were handy? It sounds like this guy bought a really big advanced one.

[edit on 26-7-2004 by goose]

Well, actually, yeah they did. They have always been fairly cost-prohibitive. But what changed was that in the 1980's the windfall profit tax was repealed and along with it went all tax credits for alternative energy use. As you can see in this article, the state of California apparently has a state tax credit in place - good deal! These people ended up paying $20k instead of $40k.

The alternative energy tax credit needs to come back.

Yep you are right they need to bring that back, you know Jimmy Carter was trying to find alternative means of energy to help make us less dependent on oil, as soon as Reagan got in, he shut it down just when they were starting to make headway. We have been way too dependent on foriegn oil too long if Reagan had left that in place and funded it we might be thumbing our noses at the countries selling us oil at overinflated prices right .

My thought is not to rely on Wind or Solar as a direct electrical source, but to utilize them to extract hydrogen from water. That way even though they are short term inconsistent, over the long run the averages are quite consistent.

Holland is doing a lot of work with windmills. They are putting them out in the shallow ocean where winds are quite consistent.
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Well the Wind Turbines that Toronto is putting up are about 60 meters tall and can produce enough juice to power 200 homes on average per year. They cost around 1.3 million Cnd each, and cost around $ 50,000 a year to maintain. As for using to extract hyrdogen from water it's a good idea but it wont be able to support a worldwide Hydrogen Economy.

For individual home use, it is better to use a combination of solar and small windmills to suppliment grid power to start with. Unlike the large farm sized 10kw unit that you have to put on a large tower, here are some units that are more reasonable and can in some cases sit just a little higher than the highest point on your building.

Apples and Oranges of Windpower

This information is from Home Power Magazine. It is an EXCELLENT resource for alternitive energy information

Ambient Sound thanks for the links That Home Power Magazine is especially usfull since I'm looking to take my house 'off the grid' in the near future myself. If I could applaud your post i would!

You are quite welcome. In my opinion, there should be a solar array and a windmill on every building in the nation. Think how much power could be generated if every Walmart in the country had it's roof covered with solar panels. There should be micro hydro generators up and down every river in the country that doesn't freeze over in the winter.

Yeeesh. Don't get me started on how inefficent we are in generating power. It's pretty tragic once you realize that we could do it much better than we do. The technology exists. We need to be using it.

The big culprit is the centralized power generation and transmission model.

[edit on 26-7-2004 by Ambient Sound]

Well the way I see it going if energy prices continue to climb more and more people will consider this a very viable option, very quickly. Already, a number of my neighbors are considering putting up solar panels, and there is a growing pressure on the Ontario Gov't to adopt more Alternative Energy soon, cuz we don't want another blackout like we had last August. As the price of Oil climbs my hopes for Alternatives Climbs as well.

Originally posted by sardion2000
Well the way I see it going if energy prices continue to climb more and more people will consider this a very viable option, very quickly. Already, a number of my neighbors are considering putting up solar panels, and there is a growing pressure on the Ontario Gov't to adopt more Alternative Energy soon, cuz we don't want another blackout like we had last August. As the price of Oil climbs my hopes for Alternatives Climbs as well.

Its not that expensive. Please check out this site.
www.sierrasolar.com...
You can get a 4000 watt wind system for about 15,000 US. Not too bad. We looked at solar systems for our house during the energy crisis here in CAlifornia. The problem is the city I live in (its not a big problem) runs its own utility and electricity is dirt cheap. Im not kidding we have a 3 br house and even in the summer running the AC all the time, we may get the electrical portion of the bill to about $19. We are looking at hot water systems though.

People just think that the windmill (aero generator) is all there is. Not true.

If you need reliable power, you also need batteries that may have to supply energy for a quite long time if the wind does not blow all day every day throughout the year. These batteries need maintenance and looking after, and only last a few years. The battery in your car might be 40 Amp hours capacity and 12 volts. (480 watt hours)

An average household might use 10Kwh per day. seven days stored power ? would be 70Kwh, or maybe about 145 car batteries might do it.

How much did your car battery cost you, and how would you like to buy 145 of them ? And keep buying new ones every few years ? Not cheap at all.

The windmill and tower might cost you a fair bit, but it too will require constant maintenance. A decent storm might totally destroy it, or a direct lightning strike would do the same.

It's a great idea, but it is NOT FREE POWER. Solar panels are a lot better because there are no moving parts and almost zero maintenance. But hail can do some real damage, and cloudy days are a problem.

Wind farms are economic on a large scale because there are no batteries, and the machines are constantly maintained by permanent staff. A remote area power supply for your home is a completely different thing.

FredT, I know that the smaller ones goes for much cheaper, I just don't know the prices(and thats for the link to:up, but I did know the prices for the BIG ones that the City of Toronto is putting up. We only got 3 right now, but it is expected by next year the price for a 60m Windmill will fall by 10 per cent so hopefully we will be putting up more. Also I don't really particualary like the smaller windmills because they are quite a threat to Birdlife due to the high RPM of the fan blades. The 60m one only goes like 40 RPM and is so huge that no bird would miss it and fly through the blades by accident.

EDIT: Man a 19 $ power bill would be sweet but is that quarterly, monthly or yearly??

[edit on 27-7-2004 by sardion2000]

Warpspeed is absolutely correct. You have to have a battery bank; and DC to AC conversion.

I firmly believe that wind + PV is the way to go and that if you did it this way, you could be grid-free.

But it also all depends on your location. If you live on top of a mountain where the wind never stops blowing...guess what you're best bet is? If you live in the middle of the desert - maybe a different story.

We have quite a few wind farms in Oz. This has some cost info,
Hydro Tasmania today announced a major partnership agreement with the world's leading wind turbine manufacturer, Vestas.
www.auswea.com.au...

www.abc.net.au/landline/ stories/s379331.htm

This is a good article,
www.cnn.com...

Sanc'.

I am Purna Bahadur Kharkathoki, the inventor of a new windmill turbine that can increase the output of the old model i.e. three blades and also the installation cost will be lesser.The product has been granted permission of Patent and the certificate has been obtained from Government of India. To know more about this product please contact at [email protected].
With Regards,
Purna Bahadur Kharkathoki
Etwari More Post-Raniganj
Dist Burdwan West Bengal
Pin 713347 India

Windmills are pretty cool. They're kind of a big investment, and are more prone to damage and maintainance intensive than solar panels, but they're generally cheaper initial cost wise for a given power level. A nice thing about windmills, though, is that since they're very simple technology, if you have the skill, you should be able to repair them yourself. Unlike solar panels which must be replaced, not repaired.

You need the batteries and inverter for solar too, so it's not an exclusive downside to windmills. It's quite the investment, though, and the batteries have a finite lifespan before they need to be replaced.

You generally can't have tall windmills in cities because of zoning laws. And the windmill should be pretty tall, if you hope to get your money's worth.

And yes, windmills have always been pretty expensive gadgetry. It was just a price people were willing to pay when it was the only way to have electricity at their remote location.

The day solar panels and/or windmills come down in price will change the world. We need a technology breakthrough. Once that happens you will see every house with solar panels and each independent of the grid. Think how great that would be also, when a storm like a hurricane knocks out a grid, today there are 200,000 people without power. If everyone had independent power sources then it would erase all those problems where it knocks everyone out.

reply to post by Anonymous ATS


Those prices you guys are quoting are ridiculous. You can buy a small windmill enough to power your own house for around $800 USD. and it's more than enough in conjunction with a $2500 USD solar set up, to power a 3-4 bedroom home with nearly all amenities. Plus the windmill should be good for around 30 years.

If you are a DIY kind of person you can build your own windmill for around $200 USD.