Turbine cost approximation

donnacha1!

Hi all,
I'm interested in putting up a wind turbine,
Possibly 11 - 20KW three phase,
does any one have a rough price break down of such turbines (any company),
Do not want any commercially sensitive info would just like to know from the out set how much will might cost,

Thanks for your time:)

quentingargan

It'll have to be 11kw or less unless you want a complicated scenario, because ESB will only allow you to hook up 16A per phase.

I can't help you as I only have worked with smaller turbines. There are a few suppliers out there in that sector, I'll PM you a few names. You are looking in the €30K plus area I would think in most cases.

One thing to watch out for is that the feed in tariff is 19c for the first 3,000 units per year. After that it falls to 9c. So you would need to be using most of the power yourself, or do your costings based on most of your exports being at 9c. On a good site it may still stack, particularly if you have high use.

dowtcha

I'm not sure I'm supposed to be giving specifics out, but I was speaking with C&F in Athenry, and they gave a ballpark of about 50k for a 20kW unit. I have no vested interest, just thought I'd pass the info on. As Q points out above, the Irish payment for exporting wind generated electricity onto the grid is fairly measly, when compared to our neighbours in the UK, and the UK public doesn't end up paying for renewable energy on their electricity bill - aka PSO levy here in Ireland. And finally somebody please correct me, but I understand the payments outlined by Q are only available if your supplier is Electric Ireland???, how other suppliers deal with microgeneration I am not certain

quentingargan

dowtcha wrote: »

Finally somebody please correct me, but I understand the payments outlined by Q are only available if your supplier is Electric Ireland???, how other suppliers deal with microgeneration I am not certain

Yes - that's correct. That was a huge disadvantage when Bord Gais and Airtricity were undercutting ESB, but it is less of an issue now that the market has been de-regulated and all three are competing:)

dowtcha

quentingargan wrote: »

Yes - that's correct. That was a huge disadvantage when Bord Gais and Airtricity were undercutting ESB, but it is less of an issue now that the market has been de-regulated and all three are competing:)

A very interesting observation there Q : so what are we saying in a fully deregulated electricity market?, that none of the suppliers are obliged any longer to offer 9 cent/kWhr for exported units???,

What would be interesting is to hear from recent turbine installation owners to see how they got on in their dealings with suppliers, in terms of selling exported/spilled units

I won't hold my breath for replies on this one, micro turbines can hardly be accused of being a blight on the Irish landscape!

It would seem that the economics of installing micro turbines would lean more heavily on displacing imported electricity, rather than revenue earned from exports?

quentingargan

dowtcha wrote: »

what are we saying in a fully deregulated electricity market?, that none of the suppliers are obliged any longer to offer 9 cent/kWhr for exported units???,

What would be interesting is to hear from recent turbine installation owners to see how they got on in their dealings with suppliers, in terms of selling exported/spilled units

I just got in our smart meter and export option about a month ago. There appears to be no change in the ruling with Electric Ireland treating us the same as ESB did. I would imagine that CER in a deregulated market would gradually insist that Airtricity and Bord Gais do likewise. In other countries, the obligation to buy electricity from microgenerators applies to all the DNOs (District Network Operators).

The laugh here is that the smart meter has a GSM card to relay info about what is being exported or imported, and when. But like many remote windy sites, we have no mobile phone reception, and the meter reader who calls around has no way of keying in our export, so I don't know how they're going to handle that issue. They've tried outdoor arials, and SIM cards from different providers to no avail. So I guess I might be a while waiting for a payment mechanism to fall into place...

dowtcha

By the sound of things, you will be framing your first invoice that shows a credit for exported units - smart meters eh? in an area with poor mobile reception - well that narrows it down doesn't it, excludes 20% of the country I'd say, and higher maybe when you consider the exposed locations these turbines are likely to be located in

Would a simple mechanical export meter not be simpler, similar to most of the import meters ? But then this would remove the possibility of TOU tariffs, anyhow its progress of a sort I guess

quentingargan

dowtcha wrote: »

Would a simple mechanical export meter not be simpler, similar to most of the import meters ?

Yes, in a perfect world, but in Spain for example, where the feed in tariff for solar was 45c / KwHr, there were quite a few diesel generators pumping power into the meters. Then the clocks went off-time, and they were pumping solar energy into the grid in the middle of the night. I guess part of the smart meter notion is to prevent me from running a cable up from next door on a calm night:o

dowtcha

The company C&F are making a turbine with two generators!!, perhaps to address the ESB networks limit of 6kW (/25 amps) single phase microgen limit, and perhaps to spread the cost of turbine installation between 2 neighbours?, 1 generator to each meter. Sounds a bit messy, and interesting too, as exporting electricty generated on one persons site to another sounds like a bit of a no no for the ESB Networks - private networks etc. Anyone got any idea how many microgen export meters there are in installed in the country?, a lot less than 4000 at a guess?? Just after reading the 10cent payment and free export meter from ESB Networks was for the first 4000 microgen meters and/or connected before Feb 2012, and payment was to last for 5 years (300 euro per year max!, for exported units)

greenpower

Just taking an interest in installing a small wind turbine at the moment. Prob a 6 kW in the region of €36,000. This 36,000 is an all in quote e.g install, connect to grid etc... I'm just wondering would anyone have an idea of the breakdown in costs of this €36,000. For example does the actual wind turbine cost €25,000 while the foundation costs €2,000, electric installation €1,000 etc...

Just would like to know the price of each item for the make up of the small wind turbine?