Why are all the wind generators so big ?surely miniturisation is the way forward

[erickdt]

Considering the fact that the main complaint (justified or not) about wind turbines is their large size and visual impact on the landscape I'd say that more smaller turbines would be a good solution to everyone's problems. That said, to me, it would be worth it to invest the extra time and money to make it happen. In the long run, smaller turbines would be much easier to service and replace.

[SomedayIsle]

The following merely scratch the surface on wind energy scale and efficiency improvements:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZ0v-CK63-4

http://www.selsam.com/

[Yortuk Festrunk]

The question is: "Why are all the wind generators so big ?"

The answer is: "Economy of Scale".

The sheer mass of the wind generator produces great torque and momentum once it gets turning. The larger the unit. the less speed required to produce the torque required to generate electricity.

The same goes for hydroelectric: giant dams holding back millions of tons of water to turn the turbines. You aren't going to generate much useful electricity from the little stream behind your house.

This will also be the case for a gravity wheel. a little table-top model won't do much, but something the size of a Ferris wheel will be necessary to generate the torque required to produce usable electricity.

[jadaro2600]

Everyone's posting someone else's idea as a youtube link or a website... surely someone has something unique to bring to this thread!?

like:  I'll just have to get 1000 miniature wind turbines and mount them on my house ..and I shall call it "The Bee Hive"

[Mark69]

You can use a squirrel cage as a vertical turbine, then you dont have to worry about the wind direction.  Can find these fairly easily, look for someone throwing out a a/c window unit.  Also, I was going to attempt to build this type of wind generator, but modify it to have 1 generator on each side.

Mark

http://video.google.ca/videosearch?q=The+Nonturbine+Wind+Alternative&emb=0&aq=f#