Free wind turbine

[PhilA]

this is great, got me excited!!
thanks for the info.
any ideas on good architects? how to find out who is good?
Ive a plot of land I am going to see tomorrow.

a passive house makes alot of sense - and I feel the same, that tech is going to change alot over the next decade such that whatever we put in now will change.
Hence why I am planning on having space for the "heat" and "elec" in the house, like the engineering section of Enterprise
a space for the tech.

thinking underfloor heating and ground source heat pump - but getting the water for shower etc to be hot enough means more than gshp i think.

for the shower, im thinking a skylight or something similar in the ceiling above the shower.

big foldable doors to totally air the house.

lol at the bent trees and the clouds not moving.

[Scotty C]

Mikey put me onto this yesterday from a company called EvanceWind, who have now been taken over by Britwind, a subsidiary of Ecotricity.

tut

Tut, I am sure your contact is legitimate. A word of warning, however. I was once offered a very similar sounding deal. On the face of it perfectly reasonable. When I looked into it in more detail, I discovered that it was only free for so long as the FIT exceed the cost of whatever finance had been put in place to cover the installation costs. As soon as, for whatever reason, that ceased to be the case I would be on the hook to make up the difference. Thus should the government change the FIT my electricity would start to look pretty expensive!!!

Cheers,
Robin

Are you limited to the amount of power you are allowed to use. The company needs a return on the power you don't use. And are you tied in for a long period. Let's say if for some reason you need to move and sell up what happens to the new owners.

Something that sounds to good to be true normally is?

[tut]

They get paid for the total kWh produced, regardless of how much you use yourself.

There will be a tie in period but not bothered about that, it would actually put value on the house as the GSHP did, and who would want to remove it when you will not even be able to see it and it gives free electricity? They have to maintain and service it so no cost there either.

tut

[tut]

Generation tariff: your energy supplier will pay you a set rate for each unit (or kWh) of electricity you generate. Once your system has been registered, the tariff levels are guaranteed for the period of the tariff (up to 20 years) and are index-linked.


Looks as if this makes it safe Robin.

tut

[Stephen]

Tut
Have a look here
http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/dom ... calculator
http://www.scaledenergy.co.uk/downloads ... 202014.pdf

I just punched in the calcs for a gaia turbine at 7m/s and it suggested that you could receive an income of £9k per year for an investment of £44k That's a 5 year pay back and then £135k potential income over the remaining 15 years. No wonder they are keen to provide you with a free turbine!
The other thing to watch out for is if the property changed hands there companies can be reluctant to release you from the lease they have in respect of your property or will seek to charge a large fee for doing so!

[Stephen]

Ps the above also provides you with free electricity.

[robin]

Generation tariff: your energy supplier will pay you a set rate for each unit (or kWh) of electricity you generate. Once your system has been registered, the tariff levels are guaranteed for the period of the tariff (up to 20 years) and are index-linked.


Looks as if this makes it safe Robin.

tut

I would still look through the complete terms and conditions before putting your signature to anything. In particular anything that smacks of you providing a loan guarantee, a lease on your property, etc. In fact I would go so far as saying that a lawyer's review would be advisable ... there's a few on here, or whoever you are using to buy/sell the houses ....

Cheers,
Robin

[robin]

Also, 5kW isn't that much (a 13A socket at 13A uses 3kW - things like fan heaters, ovens, etc.) ... so I doubt you'll be free of electricity bills ... were it your own generator then sometimes the FIT could make your net electricity bill zero because the value of the FIT exceeds the cost of the electricity you buy ... but in your case you won't get any of that benefit. In fact the only benefit you get is that while the turbine is spinning, some of your lights are on for free.

The deal seems weighted in their favour in that they get the complete FIT in exchange for paying the cost on a loan and doing the paperwork. Let's say the install costs a total of 40K - that would be 2K/year at 5%. Assume they get 40p/unit generated, (includes both generation and export tariffs). To make 2K they would need to produce 5,000 units - running at 5kW the generator produces 5 units/hour so 1,000 hours flat out and they will be breaking even (1000 hours = 83 days at 12 hours/day). If they run ahead of that rate they can pay down the loan and be quids in ...

Cheers,
Robin

[Stephen]

Robin
There is a calculator tool on the est link I posted.

[tut]

FIT rate is half that Robin, 16p and 4.7p export.

No way that a 5kW turbine would run white goods and cooker, but it would run the pump and heat exchanger of the GSHP which is a 16kW unit with a COP of 5 to 1, and probably heat the immersion cylinder as well.

tut

[tut]

I think that they may be getting a little carried away..........

"Hi David,

We recently sent you our information in the post about our WindVestment Scheme, we looked into the potential at your site for wind turbine(s).

We believe that your site maybe suitable for a 225kW turbine (up to 45m tip height).

An Exclusivity Agreement and Heads of Terms had been posted to you. Do you have any further questions regarding these at the moment?

Kind Regards,

Sarah Muir
Commercial Manager

T: 01563 829 990
E: Sarah@vgenergy.co.uk
W: http://www.vgenergy.co.uk
Offices: Ayrshire | Aberdeenshire | Yorkshire"

[Sanjøy]

I'll be along later to drop off 50 Tesla Powerwalls.

[tut]

Could someone decipher this for me please.



Just spoken to them Robin before I signed the initial form to check what my legal obligations are, and at present I am just giving them permission to contact the Council for planning permission and if that is positive, to carry out a survey for suitability. I am also signing to say that I will not contact any other Energy Company in the meantime which is fine by me.

Just looking out of the window to the Wind Turbine that was installed a couple of weeks ago on the slope on the other side of the valley about 1,000m away. Do not know the capacity but it is a big one.

tut

[kerryxeg]

I take it page 2 has the bit about selling your sole etc.

I know a farmer who has 2 similar, I think they are 225kw, pretty big beasts.

It looks a bit one sided, in that you tend to returns if certain minimums are met. I guess they are covering their risk, but if it's a poor site they get their return first and you get a share from whats left.
I can't tell if their rates are reasonable or not, but if there is another similar company out there it would be good to get some form of comparison. There are plenty other questions, how much land do they need, what access, cable runs, maintenance access, etc.

You probably only have the potential for one turbine, so it might be worth comparing with a purchase option. A quick search found this https://www.earthmill.co.uk/wind-turbin ... d-turbine/. It might be an alternative if you fancy an investment. The other consideration is getting your own smaller one and a battery storage pack to help with peak demand and the non windy days.

[Mikie711]

Sorry but am I missing something here. Assuming they are successful they are prepared to install a 225kw wind turbine which means they will pay the lesser of 12% of revenue generated or £100,000 rental PER YEAR. Assuming a 6 knot average wind speed over the year that thing will generate 500Mw/h of electricity. If the export tariff is 4.5p per kw/h on top of the FIT at 12.1p per kw/h. That means it will make 500000 x 12.1p = £60500 plus say tut uses 30,000 kw/h over the year then the remainder goes for export therefore 470000 x 4.5p = £21500 totalling £81,700. Less than £100,000 so tut would get 12% as rent which would be approx £9700 + the original £100 a year rental income and free electric.
If you get a 7knot average the generation goes up to 700mw/h which would give £13700 rental income per year.
No wonder so many farmers have these things in there fields.
Tell me I have this wrong, before I give them a call.