Wind Power Generation

Archive for the ‘Articles’ Category

Building Home wind power is an important part to our global efforts to explore renewable energy sources. The big picture behind it is the big challenge to us brought by the depletion of traditional sources of energy supply. Much like the solar energy, the source of wind energy is not just clean but renewable. And, once the windmill is put up, there is almost no additional cost for power consumption. Unsurprisingly, the average growth of wind usage has been at about twenty-five percent in the last ten years.

A good wind power system for a home is made up of at least one tower, with a turbine turned by five blades. These blazes rotate as a result of the pressure difference caused by the air moving over their surfaces, and they turn a rotor which drives an electrical generator.

For those who have been using home wind power systems, they usually store the electricity produced with batteries and use it as a backup to their solar system or their traditional grid system. If you are new to the wind power technology, you may find it difficult to understand why, compared to solar power, wind power has not yet been widely used for home power supply. To answer to that, let us examine the conditions that need to be met for a wind power system to work efficiently:

1. Wind power works best in larger areas of at least an acre in size, as this gives wind a chance to flow freely.

2. Wind generally needs to be above ten miles per hour. In other words, there has to be a heavy flow of wind, otherwise your system is not going to work.

These are very strict conditions, and obviously there are more families who are ready to accommodate solar panels than those who are qualified to build a personal wind mill. In fact, there are more factors to hinder wind power from being the number one source of alternative energy:

1. Wind system is more visually intrusive. In order for the wind turbines to stick up into the air and catch the wind, they have to stand on a tall tower. In fact, the taller the tower, the more efficiently the turbine works.

2. Wind turbines can produce noises and vibrations, and therefore are not regarded as a completely "clean" energy solution. This, coupled with their visual intrusiveness, has been the major causes for home owners not getting the permission to install windmills for personal use.

3. Any system with moving parts is more prone to breakdown, which is a big headache for home owners who are less technical savvy.

Now, there is little doubt why home wind power is not as widely employed as solar power. Having said that, wind power is still a big part of the renewable energy mix, and is a perfect supplement to those who have largely turned to solar energy as a home power solution. If you feel like to give it a try, do remember to check out your zoning requirements in the first place.

With a basic wind power design, you should be able to produce sufficient power for running all of your domestic electrical components. When you use your personal wind power, you will be able to start saving your earnings as well as the environment side by side. Nowadays you can find websites that provide plans to design and construct a wind mill that is simple with basic supplies from most hardware stores. Some supplies may have to be purchased from an electric supply shop, but these things are typically found without much difficulty.

Generating Your Own Wind Power Can Help You Benefit By Saving Quite A Bit Of Money

Keeping in mind that most people pay nothing less than $150 monthly on electrical power, this totals up to a little short of 50,000 dollars in about twenty five years. When you capitalize on wind power, you will offset the cost of the construction of the wind mill. Take into consideration the lessening of carbon levels if every single person exploited wind power for homes as well as for their offices. Even if only twenty three people built and used a wind turbine, the combined savings could potentially reach way more than one million dollars in 25 years.

Opting For A Wind Generator at Home Provides You With Free Power

Once you pay for your wind power construction details and all the other necessities, you are finished with paying for power every month. There are no mandatory fees, no grid to hook up too and the most exciting news is that there is no power company that is waiting to collect any kind of fees. Just about the only charges that you will need to bear would be towards occasional repairs and regular maintenance as your turbine ages.

Which Wind Power Design Is The Best?

The vast range of wind power designs that are available can be intimidating for most individuals. However, you are sure to soon see basically there are just 2 types wind mills or wind turbines, as they are widely known as. What you will get are large turbines that produce an average of 2000 watts or smaller sized ones that generate 700-1000 watts on average. The size of the turbine's rotor and average wind speed will have an effect on how much power you would be able to produce.

What are the Alternatives that those Skilled Experts Suggest?

Most wind turbine pros will suggest that take it easy when starting out and then take off from there as you get more familiar with it. There is lots of manual work that is expected assembling a wind turbine at home. You can start small and use your first project to provide power to another building such as a garden shed. If your pilot project thrives, you could then consider building a turbine that is more complex that can power up a larger space.

You Certainly Do Not Have to Be a Specialist

Wind turbine construction will involve the use of a few basic tools, including a metal cutter. In addition you should have a little familiarity with electrical wiring and components. Most plans related to wind power will come with explicit instructions and diagrams. When in doubt, go ahead and get the opinion of a specialist when you get to the intricate parts of the project.

All technologies have variations in design and capability, and wind power technology is no exception. There has been much heated discussion amongst home built wind power devotees concerning the relative merits of the Swift small wind turbine and conventional home-built turbines. This article is a pointed entry into the fray, with a definite bias based upon experience and investigation, and supported by a little simple mathematics.

Modern roof top wind generators, sometimes called micro-wind generators, have been the object of a lot of bad public relations recently, and I must say right up front that I am in agreement with just about all of it. Buying and installing one of these roof top systems, Swift small wind turbines being the most prominent, is a very poor investment. Home Built Wind Power generators are far superior. Let me elaborate.

First, a poignant point about wind power generators; the best measure of a wind power generator's capability is the diameter of the propeller. This is known to professionals as the swept area, and it is equivalent to the solar panel's collector area. The following comparisons are between the cost per kilowatt hour for energy produced by a Swift small wind turbine and a home built wind power generator with about one half the swept area of the Swift generator.

To calculate the approximate production of electric power in kilowatt-hours, you need to know only the average wind speed at the generator's location and its swept area. Multiply that number times the life expectancy of the generator in months, and divide the cost of the generator by the resulting number. The result is the cost, per kilowatt hour, of the wind power turbine over its estimated useful life.

Wind Speed Calculation

Assume that the height of a typical single-story home is 15 feet. Determine the average wind speed at the location of the home (this can be found in the Wind Energy Resource Atlas of the United States). For purposes of my example, I calculated an average wind speed of 8.2 miles per hour.

Calculating Monthly Kilowatt-Hour Output for the Swift Turbine

With an average wind speed of 8.2 miles per hour coupled with the Swift turbine's 7-foot swept area, the monthly output is estimated to be 32 kilowatt-hours. This extrapolates to a lifetime output of approximately 7,700 kilowatt-hours. This figure is confirmed by the manufacturer's own published figures.

Calculating Monthly Kilowatt-Hour Output for the Home-Built Wind Power Turbine

With an average wind speed of 8.2 miles per hour coupled with the home-built wind power turbine's 4-foot swept area, the monthly output is estimated to be 10.6 kilowatt-hours. This extrapolates to a lifetime output of approximately 2,500 kilowatt-hours over 20 years.

Turbine Cost

The average cost of the Swift turbine is $11,000. If you consider the 30% energy tax credit, the cost is lowered to $7,700. The total cost of the home-built wind power turbine, considering that it would require replacement every six years is about $350.

After doing some simple mathematical manipulation, it turns out that the Swift turbine averages about $1.00 per kilowatt-hour, while the home-built wind power turbine averages about $0.14 per $0.09 per kilowatt-hour. Quite a difference!

When we talk about renewable energy, normally we will relate it to the power from sun, or better known as solar power. But, other than the sun, wind is another source to generate renewable energy. Let's explore how does wind power work in generating energy that can be used to replace the non-renewable fossil-fuel energy.

Back to the basic, the wind power is actually a form of solar power because the wind is generated due to the heating effect from the sun. When the sun heats the earth's surfaces at different speed on sand, water, stone and various types of soil, these surfaces absorb and release heat at different rates, creating different temperatures. At a certain temperature, the hotter air begins to rise from the surfaces very quickly because it is lighten than the equal volume of cool air. As the results, the hot air rises and reduces the atmospheric pressure near the earth's surface, which draws cool air to fill the gap the hot air leaves behind. This action causes air movement or is known as Wind.

Based on the physic theory, when the air moves, it generates kinetic energy, a type of energy created with the motion of mass. With energy conversion technology, we can capture and convert the kinetic energy into other forms of energy such as electricity. Energy from wind is a renewable energy that can be generated endlessly. It has become the future trend as the one of major power generation sources besides the solar power. The world is put a great effort to make wind power a long-term energy strategy to produce electricity, mainly due to the wind power generation is clean and most importantly, it is renewable and environment friendly, a stark contrast to traditional power plants that rely on fossil fuels.

A wind power system consists of wind turbine, which is made up of tower, blades and a nacelle, a control gearing system. The wind power generated from a wind turbine is determined largely by the length and the design of the blades. The design of blades creates a pressure of difference in wind, high pressure at one side and low pressure at the other side. The pressure difference between the sides of blades rotates the blades. The rotation of blades generates kinetic energy and being transferred into electric energy, is in turn transferred into electricity via transformer.

With the technology improvement that leads to a better generation techniques, the cost of generating electricity from wind power has been greatly reduced, making it a feasible renewable energy solution to be used as the major source of electricity for future. In fact, there are many homemade wind power system building guides available that give guidance to people who are interested in implementing renewable energy system at home to make a homemade wind-power system to generate electricity for home uses. The renewable energy generated from wind has started to become an alternative energy source from today, and it will definitely be the major sources for future, replacing the finite fossil fuels as the power generation source.

Summary

Wind power works to generate electricity by converting the kinetic energy captured from wind turbine to electric energy via transformer. Wind power is clean and renewable energy that will become the long-term energy strategy for the world.

North or South Dakota, Montana, Kansas, Texas. Do you live in one of these states? If you do, you ought to be grateful since these states were referenced to be the top five windiest states. So what about being reside in one of the windiest states? The chance to have your own electric power by wind power is economically viable for you. Wind power cost could be no longer your concern.

Wind is abundance yet to be fully potentially used power; it’s renewable; and a form of solar power caused by the heating and cooling of the surface of the earth, as it turns a new face to the sun causes the air to move and flow. If you live in other parts of the world, the windiest places tend to be over the mid continental planes.

If you are still confused, the new free online application called First Look maps global wind speed for wind power generation potential, it is necessary to have an average annual wind speed of at least 10 mph (4.5 m/s) in order to benefit from a wind system.

The mechanism of the usage of wind power must be related to the work of the wind turbines which are as simple as follows:
1. Wind turns the blades.
2. Blades shall spin a shaft.
3. Shaft connects to a generator.
4. Generator produces electricity.

Wind power generator is a very effective way to generate free power and it can be built by you for as little as $100. To purchase a wind power generator may be very expensive; maybe around $1000-$3000 which is quite a high price. Fortunately you can make your own generator as little as the amount stated above.

The materials can be purchased in the hardware store or online stores such as eBay. Some materials you can get for free. Wind power generator requires little maintenance; it does not produce any pollution. It's good for the environment and reduces the greenhouse effect. The sound level it generates is so low that it won't interfere you when you sleep or watch TV. Of course you have to look other potential things such as your residential place, and the type of the wind turbine you’re installing.

You can reduce your electricity bills by 80% if you own a “do-it-yourself” wind power and they can have a back up system in case the power goes out. Wind is the most efficient form of energy, it will always be available, it does not produce pollution that makes it the cleanest of them all.

Maybe the only raised concern about wind energy is the possibility of birds flying into the wind turbines and killed. But actual reports of such accidents are rare. The American Wind Energy Association states that statistically the average sliding glass door has more chance of killing a bird; as addition, many wind energy builders are working on improving the visibility of their turbines with larger and slower moving blades.

Building your own wind turbine is quite cheap; environmentally friendly; worry free from environmental or animal-lover organization; and above all if you reside in that fully potential place to use the wind energy, why wait tomorrow? Starts with only $100, the result of this investment will be worth the wind power cost, where you can have your own advanced power generator.

www.shcri.com - On April 20th, 2009, Gold Wind won the bid of wind power concession projects of Inner Mongolia and Hebei, totaling 775,500 KW. The 517 bid machines are all GW77-1500 and the total value reaches RMB 4.187 billion (611 million USD). The delivery period spans from 2009 to 2012. XEMC won the bid of wind power concession projects of Fengning Wansheng wind power plant on Hebei Chengde wind power base, altogether 150,000 KW totaling RMB 797 million (116.3 million USD). In addition, XEMC also won the bid of wind power projects of Weichang Yudaokou wind power plant on Hebei Chengde wind power base, altogether 200,000 KW totaling RMB 796 million (116.2 million USD).

 

This wind power project of 5.25 million KW involves 25 wind power plants. Over 20 wind power entire-machine enterprises participate in bidding. Compared with the 3.8 million KW project bid of Gansu Jiuquan, the number of enterprises which have won the bids shows a slight increase. In the project of Gansu Jiuquan, besides Gold Wind, Sinovel and DEC, CSIC (Chongqing) Haizhuang also won a small bid. It is estimated that about 5 enterprises will win the bids this time and the share made up by the additional enterprises except the three tycoons will see an apparent increment. At present, after developing technologies and establishing productivity at early stage, altogether 70 plus wind power entire-machine enterprises have owned capability of bulk supply. Therefore, they all make great efforts to win the huge bid this time. In addition, what’s worth noticing is that Guodian United Power Technology Company Ltd, a subsidiary of China Guodian Corporation, also participates in bidding for four wind power plants, some of which belong to the China Longyuan Electric Power Group Corporation, another subsidiary of China Guodian Corporation. In this way, the combination of wind power operator and wind power supplier might be a trend of China’s domestic wind power market in future.

 

In this bidding, the price of wind power machines witnesses an apparent drop. The price of GW77-1500 bid won by Gold Wind in June 2008 stood at RMB 6398/KW that time and slipped to RMB 5399/KW this time. Although the prices of raw materials and spare parts affect the prices of bid machines, another factor of fierce competition within China’s wind power equipment industry can not be ignored as well. It is predicted that the total output of Gold Wind, Sinovel and DEC in 2009 will reach 7 million KW. Even if the demand will perhaps jump to 120 million KW in 2020, China’s wind power industry will represent an inevitable trend of surplus. In general, wind power entire-machine industry will see an increasingly apparent decline in gross profits in future. Certainly, there are differences between enterprises. Some will be kicked out and some excellent ones will create more profits than the average amount of the whole industry.

 

The increased installed capacity of China’s wind power machines rose by 89 percent to 6.25 million KW in 2008 and the amount of this bid reached 5.25 million KW. It is predicted that China’s demand for wind power will see an annual growth rate of 30 percent to 50 percent, for China is actively planning to build six 10-million-KW wind power bases.

 

Source: China Research and Intelligence

Get more information, please visit:

http://shcri.com/reportdetail.asp?id=197

http://shcri.com/reportdetail.asp?id=306

 

If you'd like to copy or quote this article, please keep the source information

---------------------------------

Contacts:

Eileen Gu

www.shcri.com

T:86-21-5842-6733

Email:eileen@shcri.com

 

2009 Deep Research Report on China Wind Power Equipment Industry Chain ( http://www.bharatbook.com/Market-Research-Reports/Deep-Research-Report-on-China-Wind-Power-Equipment-Industry-Chain.html ) It was a professional and depth research report on China Wind power Equipment industry. In the report, the following information will be included :

China Wind power policy. China Wind power Equipment (Wind turbine. Wind turbine blade, Gearbox, Generator, Bearing. Control System etc) Production Supply Sales Demand marketing and technology (equipment) information;
China Wind power Equipment production and demand from 2008-2013;

China Wind power Equipment manufacturers Capacity Production Cost Average selling price Production Value Revenue Profit etc information;

At the same time, we conduct a detailed statistical analysis on the relationship between wind turbine manufacturers and their parts suppliers.

Downstream client or demand analysis, (included: wind farm operators sales contracts customers etc);
China Wind power Equipment industry development trend analysis by technology, price etc;
China Wind power Equipment industry development trend and related conclusions;

In a word, it was a depth research report on china Wind power Equipment industry chain. And thanks to the China Wind power Equipment (Wind turbine. Wind turbine blade, Gearbox, Generator, Bearing. Control System etc) marketing or technology experts help and support during Wind Energy team survey and interviews.

Key chapters of the report are as follows :
 
 Chapter One Background of wind power equipment industry
 
 Chapter Two Wind power equipment industry overview
 
 Chapter Three China wind power equipment Key Manufacturers
 3.1 China wind turbine Key Manufactures
 3.2 China wind turbine blade Key Manufactures
 3.3 China Wind Gear Box Key Manufactures
 3.4 China Wind Power bearing Key Manufactures
 3.5 China wind turbine Generator Key Manufactures
 3.6 China wind Control System Key Manufactures
 3.7 China Wind Farm Operation Key Manufactures
 
 Chapter Four China Wind equipment market Productions and Supply Sales Demand Market Status and Forecast 2008-2013
 
 Chapter Five Other countries in the global wind power market
 
 Chapter Six Wind power equipment industry chain research summary
 

Contact us at:

Bharat Book Bureau
Tel: 91 22 27578668
Fax: 91 22 27579131
Email: info@bharatbook.com 
Website: www.bharatbook.com

How to Make Home Wind Power Generators

A home wind power generators is a unit that changes wind energy into other types of energy. It uses wind energy to make mechanical energy for rotating its fins which in turn help to produce electrical energy.
Home Wind Power Generators are a very helpful machine in times of energy shortage or just to be able to create power in remote locations and to save the cost and disruption of having a power supply installed by a professional electrician in a remote structure of your choosing.

Although home wind power generators only began generating electricity of late; they used to be a much used method for pumping water and towing boats.

In the current climate of extreme energy shortage all over the planet, it is only sensible that we seek out alternative energy choices. Besides being environmentally friendly home wind power generators show to be an low cost choice, especially on farms and in the countryside. Wind power for homes may not be the best choice in a highly-populated area.

What are the Requirements for Building Home Wind Power Generators ?

There are two important pre-requisites for Home Wind Power Generators :

• The location where the system is to be implemented should have an area of at least one acre. It is not advisable to set up a Wind power for homes in a smaller area as the wind turbine blades will not be able to make use of enough wind power for the wind turbine to work.

• The optimum speed of wind in the area should at best be 11 miles per hour. It is not advisable to employ the wind turbine at a place where things like high-rise buildings and tall towers get in the way of the wind. You also need to ensure that the wind speed is steady at your placement.

What are the Components of Home Wind Power Generators ?

You will require the following items to make home wind power generators:

• Blades: The blades are responsible for utilizing the wind energy. Blades are usually made of wood or plastic.
• Tower: The tower is the pillar that fixes the system high enough to be able to use the wind. They are construtctedof hard material such as poly-vinyl chloride.
• Shaft: The shaft is used to join the blades to the tower, at the same time allowing them to turn smoothly.
• Base: The base of the wind turbine is what fixes the tower and the blades.

How are residential wind generators built?

You will be able to find many ready-to-build home wind power generators ebooks available on the market.

If you would like to pick the components personally and set the wind turbine on without help, ensure you utilize good help; as a mismatch of size in the components will make your wind turbine useless.

Follow the link to discover more information and guides to build Home Wind Power Generators with wind energy to squash your power bill.

www.shcri.com - On July 20th of 2009, China Development and Reform Commission published the Notice on Wind Power on the Pricing Policy. It stipulates that the whole country will be divided into four categories of wind power resource areas according to the situation of wind power resources and engineering construction conditions, and then the corresponding wind power electricity price benchmark will be fixed. Since August 1st of 2009, the wind power electricity price benchmark in Chinese four resource areas will be 0.51 RMB (0.074 USD) Kw/h, 0.54 RMB (0.079 USD) Kw/h, 0.58 RMB (0.085 USD) Kw/h, and 0.61 RMB (0.089 USD) Kw/h separately. In the future, Chinese newly-constructed continental wind power projects will carry out uniformly the wind power on-grid electricity price benchmark in their own wind power resource areas. The on-grid electricity price of the maritime wind power will be fixed separately according to the construction process in the future. It also stipulates that the apportion system of wind power charges will be carried out continuously. The part of the on-grid electricity price of wind power that is within the local on-grid electricity price of the fuel coal and desulfurization equipment benchmark is afforded by the local provincial electricity network. The amount above the benchmark is solved by apportion of the extra electricity price of the renewable energy which is collected by the country. After the adjustment of the on-grid electricity price of the fuel coal and desulfurization equipment benchmark, the part that is afforded by the local electricity network in the on-grid electricity price of wind power will be accordingly adjusted.

At present, the investment for the construction of Chinese wind power farms is generally 8,000 RMB to 1,000 RMB per kilowatt. Based on the 30% of the self-owned capital investment and 1,800 utilization hours of equivalent full capacity, it can be calculated that the electricity cost of the wind power farm with 50,000 kilowatts is 0.43 RMB to 0.53 RMB Kw/h, which is lower than the benchmark electricity price that was issued by China Development and Reform Commission. If considering the rich wind power resources in Hebei and Inner Mongolia, the utilization hours of equivalent full capacity can reach 2,500 hours and the electricity cost can be reduced to 0.32 RMB. Plus the CDM revenue of about 0.1 RMB per Kw/h in the wind power farm, the profitability of Chinese wind power farms is already on a high level.

For those investors, the benchmark electricity price method is conductive to regulate the mechanisms of market and price. With no vicious competition of low electricity prices, it is beneficial for the investors. In the five sessions of bids for wind power concession in China from 2003 to 2007, the on-grid electricity price has been an important judgment standard. Though the proportion of the on-grid electricity price has been reduced from the lowest electricity price as the bid price in the first two sessions to only 25% of the bid price in the fourth and fifth sessions, the vicious competitions on the on-grid electricity price among bidders still emerged. After the regulation of the benchmark electricity price this time, the localization schemes of wind power equipment of bidders, technical schemes, financing capacities and financial schemes for projects of bidders will be the determine factors, which is more conductive to the regulation of the market and the healthy development of the wind power industry.

For wind power equipment dealers, based on the fixed revenues of investors, controlling the investment costs will be the key factor to improve the profits. The competition on the price and quality of products among equipment dealers will become fiercer. The equipment investment accounts for 60% of the total investment of the wind power farms. Therefore, the cost control will be mainly focused on the controls of equipment purchase costs and maintenance costs in the future, which will put up higher demands for the quality and price of the products of equipment dealers.

The support policies will greatly promote the development of Chinese wind power industry. The regulation of the benchmark electricity price will stimulate significantly the enthusiasm of investors of wind power farms and operator electricity network companies. It will also promote the healthy and continuous development of the wind power industry. For equipment dealers, on one hand, the stimulation of the enthusiasm of investors can better promote the increase of the industry and enhance the equipment demands. On the other hand, the fiercer competition will reconstruct the industry and is conductive to the industry in the long term.

 

 

Source: China Research and Intelligence

If you'd like to copy or quote this article, please keep the source information

 

To get more information, please visit http://shcri.com/reportdetail.asp?id=306

 

Contacts:

Eileen Gu

China Research and Intelligence

www.shcri.com

Email: eileen@shcri.com

TEL: 86-21-6852-1029

    86-21-5842-6733

Shanghai, China

In light of the fact that you found this article you are no doubt serious about employing DIY wind power to provide electricity for your home. The wind is a natural occurring phenomena which is actually created by the sun. Residential wind turbines have become incredibly popular over the past decade around the world and will continue to rise in popularity as we now complete the first decade of the 21st century.

Residential wind power and solar panels are on the verge of becoming common sites for homes throughout the world. As people become more aware of the potential for these sources of renewable energy for the electricity they can create, they are simultaneously learning that these forms of natural energy generation also reduce our carbon footprint.

DIY Wind Power and How it Works

Wind power is captured by windmills or turbines, creating energy that is stored in batteries. The turning of the blade harnesses the energy of the wind and that then creates electricity. Some people refer to this equipment as windmills, some as turbines, but it is the same thing.

Kinetic energy, or physical energy, is created by the turning of the blades by the wind and gathered into a generator. The more wind you have, the faster the blades are able to turn, the more energy you can create. A home wind generator stores this wind created energy in a battery which then becomes the source of the electrical power for the home.

DIY Wind Power Will Save You Money

The short answer is yes, absolutely! How much money you're going to save the plans on quite a few variables including how large your wind power generator is, how much wind you get and how efficiently you capture it. It is absolutely possible to save a substantial amount of money on your electric bill.

DIY wind power systems are very inexpensive to build. For under $200 in materials you can buy everything you need at your local hardware store or large home improvement store. And what makes this project even better is that it is easy to build. Almost anyone can undertake the construction of a home wind power system and do so with success.

How Much Power Will by Home Need

Most homes use on average approximately 100,000 KWH up electricity per year. With that in mind, a wind turbine that creates between 5 to 15 kW should do the trick. Of course, the larger the turbine is, the more energy it will collect from the wind. It is even possible to create enough wind power that you not only completely cover your utility bill but you can also sell any unused electricity back to your power company and make some money from them.

The only down side of homemade wind turbines is that they can be noisy. If properly maintained they are not exceptionally noisy. When the wind blows, the movement over the blades creates a whistling sound. Improperly cared for parts will make extra noise as does any moving machinery. Keeping the properly maintained and oiled is extremely important for minimizing sound. It is also a better option to build your turbine out of PVC rather than wood as wood will not hold up nearly as long.

If you are committed to the idea of generating your own power, DIY wind power is an excellent option. Easy to do, inexpensive to build it is a very doable project for the average homeowner. You will find it to be a very rewarding endeavor both in the short and long run. Save you and your family money and do your part to save our planet. It is a win-win energy option.