small scale Wind solar or hydropower on farms

F.D

Hi Has any one ever considered or invested in any of the above as a ways of earning money on the side or as a way of reducing bills
Have you had any success or is it too expensive or does not make financial sence to do so
Just asking the question as a neighbour has put up a wind turbine beside his farm (I think its probably the biggest you can erect without planning permission) its probably too early to ask him if its worth it but it just made me think.
We have land at the same level as him and also in one field have a river at the back of it with a good flow all year round .
I know from a green point of view it would be great but lets be realisitc it has to pay or its not worth it

Birdnuts

Not an expert in this area but near the place I have in North Mayo there is a group of "blow ins" who produce all their own energy this way and claim they've saved a fortune on energy bills. They(about 10 in all) also run their still succesfull craft/farm shop off it so they must be doing something right:)

reilig

I'm not an expert either but my neighbours have had a consultant take a wind mesurement on a land block that I own part of (My house is on the hill too) over a 3 year period and he did tell us that our land is in one of the top 80% of suitable sites for wind turbines in the country. The consultant was hired and directed by a neighbouring landowner who bought the land and felt that he was not getting enough profit return from it by renting it to a local farmer. Consultant and wind measurement cost him Eur 1000 and me and 2 othe rlandowners Eur400 each.

Consultant did up a sample returns for each of our local houses and also projected returns for a large scale wind farm (if we were to get permission - could cost us up to EUR30k to get permission and could take up to 5 years along with some possible local objection and the risk of fall out with neighbours)

Anyway, the domestic wind turbine figures were interesting. A proper wind turbine to produce my annual requirements which would not need planning permission would cost EUR10k plus Eur2k for erection and cables. Servicing and part replacement would cost about Eur2k every 10K. So the total cost for teh first 10 years would be Eur14k. My monthly ESB bill is EUR90 on average combined winter and summer. At current rate that's EUR10800 over 10 years.

So it would not pay me back over 10 years. It would cost me money.
Now there is the argument of ESB prices increasing and the possibility of me making a small bit of extra money if the turbine produces excess electricity.

So in short I decided not to go ahead with it until turbines at least get a little cheaper and the more reliable models come to the fore and are proven.

Hope the figures help. I have a report from the consultant somewhere which details KW outputs etc and could dig it out if you require it.

Username John

reilig wrote: »

Hope the figures help. I have a report from the consultant somewhere which details KW outputs etc and could dig it out if you require it.

Hi Reilg,

If you had the report I'd be very interested in having a look at it, if you wouldnt mind, and if you can find it easily (and you have it on softcopy)

Thanks

johnstown

I think the OSI produce wind maps, that I guess would give a general indication of wind speeds in Ireland. This URL might help..

http://maps.seai.ie/wind/

reilig

Username John wrote: »

Hi Reilg,

If you had the report I'd be very interested in having a look at it, if you wouldnt mind, and if you can find it easily (and you have it on softcopy)

Thanks

Unfortunately I only have it in hard copy. We moved into a new house recently and its in a box somewhere. The consultant was from Cork as is teh landowner who comissioned the consultant. I will contact him and see if he can email me a copy of it.

Unfortunately the OSI wind maps are only projected wind speeds and not actual measured wind speeds so are not suitable to base the choice of a site for a windmill on.

You need to use an anemometer in a fixed location for at least 1 year to get an accurate average wind speed and project the amount of wind energy in that location. (Ours was measured over 3 years). Only then can you tell if the site would give a payback based on the amount of wind available there.

reilig

Can I suggest that there are several useful threads on this which give a lot more information from wind energy professional in the Renewable energy forum which can be found under the construction and planning section of boards.ie. There are 1 or 2 people on there who have operating turbines and who have experience of assessing, installing and maintaining wind turbines.

F.D

reilig wrote: »

Can I suggest that there are several useful threads on this which give a lot more information from wind energy professional in the Renewable energy forum which can be found under the construction and planning section of boards.ie. There are 1 or 2 people on there who have operating turbines and who have experience of assessing, installing and maintaining wind turbines.

Thanks i will check it out, Just posted the thread here as i would like to hear farmers opinions on it i suppose, I find it interesting that your site was surveyed for 3 years, i had just assumed it would have been for a year but i'd say it gave a better picture. also i have one question if you went for a bigger turbine with more output but still within the limit of not needing planning , would it have paid itsself off any quicker? i think my neighbours is supposed to be able to produce enough power to supply 3 households? but then the cost is probably relative