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Wind turbines work best near the coast, or in open exposed areas where average wind speeds are high. Itself, but the unsuitable location in which it has been installed. The turbine will be adversely affected from turbulance from the trees that are too close to the turbine and from up-winds from the roof. As a consequence, B&Q withdrew the turbines from sale in early 2009.Īn example of a less-than-ideal turbine installation: here a turbine has been installed in a built up area, close to tall trees and too close to the roof of the house. More often than not, the turbines were installed in inappropriate locations - on the sides of houses, in built up areas, and not high enough to catch the breeze. Eager customers lined up to buy the competitively priced systems only to find that they did not provide the power advertised. The UK DIY chain, B&Q, found this to their cost when they started selling their own 1kW turbine system in 2006. Turbulent air - where the wind is constantly changing direction - leaves the turbines constantly changing direction, constantly chasing the wind rather than extracting power from it. They also require a very smooth airflow: the smaller turbines are very susceptible to turbulence - so if you live near to a busy road, or near trees, or in a built up area, a wind turbine is unlikely to work well for you. Compared to large turbines used by the power companies, small wind turbines are not particularly efficient and need to be situated in an area of above average wind in order to generate reasonable amounts of power. Small wind turbines do have disadvantages however, and are very site specific.
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On smaller scale systems, turbines can be a good alternative to solar power, but more often than not achieve their best when implemented together with a solar system: a small wind turbine can generate electricity in a breeze even when the sun is not shining, whilst the solar modules can generate electricity during the daytime when the wind is not blowing. Unlike the early large turbines, modern turbines are virtually silent and the largest systems can generate in the region of 2 megawatts of power - enough to power over 2,000 homes. Large scale wind turbines are efficient and effective, and can be installed in a variety of locations - including far out to sea - comparatively quickly. The answer, of course, is that it isn't as simple as stating which technology is better - both have their benefits and drawbacks and which technology is best depends very much on the application and the location of the system.įor large scale applications - such as for commercial scale power production for the national grid - wind turbines are the most obvious solution. I am often asked which is better - wind turbines, or solar modules.