Why can't we just have our own windmills instead of having the wind farms?

Question

each person gets a windmill to rent set on their yard for them to use.

the owners of the rental could have the windmills. Also why not have small farms for a small area of town?
I am just trying to get some insite on windmills. I have wanted one for years but my husband said no! Just woundering why everyone could not have one in their yard?

Answer 1

If you have the money, the space, and the permits, go for it. Just remember, it's not just a windmill. You'll need room for a rectifier and a battery bank if you want power security, which is always a good idea. Not to mention that you'll need a turbine to convert the motion of the windmill to electricity.

Answer 2

Everyone seems to be assuming that there are only two options: what we have now, or one enormous windfarm that supplies ALL the juice for our entire society.

There's no reason not to have a small windmill of your own that makes a little juice that lowers your electric bill - not eliminates it. In a hot, sunny climate it would be enough to reduce the amount you're taking off the grid to run your air conditioner. That would reduce the peak load on the power plants and grid. Not replace them, just reduce the load. That's a major start toward solving the problems.

Then, if thousands of people had their own windmills and net metering then there would not be nearly so much demand on the entire utility. Combine that with solar panels on your roof for those sunny days without much breeze and you have localized generation.

Sure, you're looking at about $2000 - $2500 to add a net metered windmill to your home and about $5000 to $10,000 to mount PV on your roof (but that price is coming down). But look at that in terms of our whole economy then ask how expensive was the Ford Model T in terms of the whole economy in 1913 when average Joe got paid $1 a day?

Net metering makes it possible to reduce your strain on the grid and reduce your monthly electric bill, both. You can do that right now, if you can get a home-improvement loan from your bank. The resale value of your home will skyrocket.

Local generation of power, where thousands of homes have their own windmills and PV panels, is always more efficient and less expensive for everyone. It has ONE major drawback: it takes profit away from large corporations (your utility company) and makes every household an equal partner. THAT smacks of "communism" and therefore is considered the enemy of a capitalist piracy society.

Answer 3

Reasons

1 - Large windmills are more efficient. It hard for individuals to have very large windmills.

2 - Many places don't have steady reasonably high winds. Its better to put a bunch of windmills in the best places, rather than scattering them all over the place.

3 - People probably don't want to spend the money for the windmills and the money and time to maintain them.

4 - Zoning and other local ordinances, and homeowners association rules, also state and federal laws, can put barriers in place against windmills, esp. large ones, that might be too much effort to get around just to have a personal windmill.

Answer 4

There are plenty of reasons why this cant be done.

First of all such places are chosen where there is plenty of energy in the wind i.e. winds have good speeds. It is not necessary that place where consumer lives has good wind velocity.

Moreover if you want to run the complete house off the main grid, you will need a large wind turbine. A large turbine has to be mounted on a very tall pole (of 40 to 50 foot). That will be a danger for your house and your neighborhood in case of hurricanes, cyclones or any other bad weather apart from an being an eye soar. Imagine a town of 30,000 houses having 30,000 wind turbines. What would it be like.

Maintenance cost will skyrocket because whenever a part needs to be replaced or repaired technicians will have to move from place to place. This will burn extra fuel and time.

Another problem is that the wind turbines make quite a bit of noise. Imagine how much that noise will be aggravated when there will be one turbine in each house.

You can see that all the trouble is because of its sheer humungous size. Had it been producing good amount of power while staying smaller there would have been wind turbines in every house.

Answer 5

The cost per kilowatt is higher for small windmills. You will pay several thousand dollars for a half kilowatt unit. After maintenance your electricity becomes uneconomic.
However, for remote areas it is a great idea. And even on your house you will be saving some electricity. It's a personal choice if you want to spend that money for a long term saving.

Answer 6

Unless you live in an area with fairly constant winds, it's not cost effective. Wind farms are located in areas that usually have at least two years of recorded wind data (speed, direction, etc.) to determine if it's worthwhile to put up the turbines.

The amount of energy in the wind varies with the cube (^3) of the speed, so small variations in speed can cause huge variations in output. Even in the best areas, wind has a capacity factor (the amount of time a generator actually puts out it's full rated output) of 30% or so.

So, 2/3 of the time you would be getting little to no output.

Go to the American Wind Energy Association (awea.org) and click on "Small Wind" for more information. You may find there is enough wind in your area to make it worthwhile.

Answer 7

A mill that would provide sufficient energy for the average home would be far too noisy and expensive. Having at least eight of these on an average city block (8 homes) would not be feasible. Most homes sit on too little land and way too close to other dwellings. Additionally, most towns won't issue a permit for a wind generator installation.

If you would like to have one of these to supplement your grid power source, you need to move onto acreage.

Answer 8

You really want to deal with the maintenance and upkeep? Windmills are huge machines. No thank you.

It would be way more expensive to rent them then use a common source.

so thats y

Answer 9

You really want to deal with the maintenance and upkeep? Windmills are huge machines. No thank you.

It would be way more expensive to rent them then use a common source.

Answer 10

No reason at all. Many people, especialy in rural areas do have them. The amount of power you get from them depends on their size, and wind speed. To get enough power for a common household would require a wind mill that is too large to be practical in a high-density urban environmrnt.