Tower Types
Your home wind power system (generator) will be sitting on a tower, but what type of tower is to be used? Be carefull when selecting the wind power generator manufacturer and follow the recommendations and instructions. Common towers are the tilt-up, fixed guyed, or freestanding (each including tubular or lattice types). see reference below. Various combinations and permutations within these categories exist, but we shall cover the economics of these tower styles: tilt-up tubular, tilt-up lattice, guyed lattice, freestanding lattice, and monopole, at heights ranging from 34 to 127 feet.
For an example, one can compare the cost factors of installing a wind power generator of three makes-Bergey Windpower’s Excel-S (22-foot-diameter rotor), Southwest Windpower’s Skystream 3.7 (12-foot-diameter rotor), and Abundant Renewable Energy’s ARE110 (11.8-foot-diameter rotor)-on readily available towers of different heights and in different wind-shear regimes. The above are all for batteryless, grid-tied systems. Costing is reported for an annual average wind speed of 11 mph at 33 feet (10 m) above ground level and at wind-shear coefficients of 0.1 to 0.6. Locations with different shears and the same annual average wind speed at 33 feet will have different wind speeds near the ground, with the low-shear location being much windier.
To be continued…..
Reference: (For more on tower types, see Ian Woofenden’s “Wind Generator Tower Basics” article in HP105.)