Wind
Generally, wind turbines are not well suited for urban lots. There are plenty of exceptions, especially as you get into the Hill Country. For a wind turbine to work effectively, you need to have sustained winds of at least 10 miles per hour on your land. The wind speed at your location is highly dependent on the topography of your land, but for a general idea of your wind potential, click on one of the links below.
These maps reference broad scale wind resources that are available statewide.
Class 1 areas are considered unsuitable for wind turbines.
Class 2 areas are considered marginal for wind turbines.
Class 3 areas and above are considered suitable for wind turbines.
These maps are guidelines only and do not consider local site conditions that may result in higher wind speed availability.
Should I install wind or pv?
Many folks in the Hill Country have wind and solar resources available and the question arises, “Which option is more cost effective?”
One goal when installing a renewable energy system is to determine which technology has the lowest installed cost per unit of energy output. This is a one good metric for determining the value of your renewable energy system investment. The lower the “$/watt”, the better. The graph above shows that the $/watt of a wind turbine is highly dependent on the available wind speed. At low wind speeds, the output of the wind turbine is low, so that a PV system provides a better value. As the wind speed increases, the wind turbine produces more power, and at some value between 11 – 11.5 mph, it starts to become a better value than PV.
A couple important notes about this graph:
This does not factor in any local utility incentives. If there is a local incentive for PV, but not wind, then the PV curve will slide down, and the break even point for wind will occur at a higher wind speed.
PV costs have been driven down aggressively over the past several years. Costs for wind turbines have not seen the same costs pressure. The result is that this is also driving the wind-solar break-even point up to higher and higher average wind speeds.
This graph illustrates the importance of maximizing the wind speed available for a wind turbine. Wind speed is negatively affected by any tall objects, such as trees and houses. To maximize your output, the turbine should be mounted at least 25 feet above the nearest obstacle located within a 500 foot radius of the turbine.
We offer wind turbines ranging in size from 600W up to 15kW. A list of our products can be found here.