Location, location, location crucial to domestic wind power

clipped from www.energyefficiencynews.com Small-scale domestic wind turbines installed on 450,000 properties around the UK could generate enough electricity to power 825,000 homes, according to a report from the Energy Savings Trust. But the Trust’s year-long in situ study of the performance of small wind turbines – both building-mounted and freestanding pole-mounted – at 57 sites around the UK finds that location is crucial. While a 6 kW pole-mounted wind turbine on the remote Orkney Island of North Ronaldsay off the Scottish coast generated 22,000 kWh over the course of a year, a 1 kW building-mounted turbine in Dagenham in Essex generated no electricity at all. Freestanding wind turbines in the right location could generate electricity worth over £2300 annually (assuming 18,000 kWh at £0.13/kWh), but others in more urban areas could actually cost money. But even in the right area, building-mounted wind turbines could only hope to generate 1000 kWh per annum – equivalent to only £127 of electricity.