How much energy from a wind turbine?
The most significant thing in determining the energy from
a wind turbine is the rotor diameter.
Since I've been unable to find any reliable output figures for wind turbines on the internet or elsewhere, here are
some figures from a back-of-envelope calculation for turbines of different sizes.
I've assumed a quarter of the energy in the wind ends up as
electrical energy, which isn't far out. I've ignored "load factor"
and the other stuff which "experts" use which is often
confusing and inaccurate.
A turbine has arrived, and as soon as it's up and working
and we have some figures, they will be put on-line.
Looking at the manufacturer's literature, the
25 mph output is a little higher than my calculation indicates, but we
are in reasonable agreement.
| figures show probable turbine output in watts | |||||||
| windspeed (mph) | 25 | 20 | 15 | 12 | |||
| Rotor Diameter (m) | |||||||
| 1.0 | 125 | 64 | 28 | 15 | |||
| 1.5 | 280 | 143 | 62 | 35 | |||
| 2.0 | 500 | 255 | 110 | 62 | |||
| 2.5 | 780 | 398 | 172 | 98 | |||
| 3.0 | 1125 | 574 | 248 | 140 | |||
Nigel Deacon, habitat21 website
