Comments by "Tony Wilson" (@tonywilson4713) on "Wind Turbines for Home: Is it Worth It?" video.

You've actually described something I wished a lot more people would consider. I have lived in Fremantle WA and Aspendale Victoria both located right next tot he water and BOTH get a seas breeze that's as regular as a clock. It might vary in strength but you can't prevent the basic physics of what happens due to the temperature differential between the land the the water. ANYBODY with a solar system in that sort of location has an inverter system sitting there with LITTLE or NOTHING coming in as the sun goes down. All you need at that point is a SUITABLE wind turbine with an output compatible with the solar inverter. There is a company in Iceland that has done this but they are horribly expensive but then they are built for Icelandic conditions. I actually think there is a small market for low cost VERTICAL wind turbines. They are cheap, they are simple and they are quiet if they have decent bearings. The biggest issue with small HORIZONTAL turbines is the noise they make. One of the small Scottish Islands has a couple of small HAWTS and they generate more power than the Island needs. They are as loud as hell but they are way out town. In built up areas like Fremantle an Aspendale you can't have them. It will only take 1 neighbor to complain and out they go. Against it is the misconception of efficiency. People see the lower efficiency of VAWTs and immediately dump them as no good. But if you've already paid for the solar inverter and its only working 8-12 hours a day depending on the time of year and you can extend that to around 20 hours a day (and possibly 24 at times) then you are raising the overall system tremendously. The fact you have done this and proven that in a decent location IT WORKS is music to my ears.
3
@EngineeringwithRosie FYI - the reason I like this comment is that I have been working on a variation of the VAWT with a better aerofoil and electronics compatible with solar panels. I started with a degree in aerospace so I have a pretty good understanding of the issue of a wing profile that is effectively go through extreme swings in angle of attack. That's just one of the major issue of VAWTs that only a few have tried to deal with. I know the detractors arguments as well but most of them are ignorant non-engineering people who don't accept the concept that a technology that's good for 90% can also be hopeless for the other 10% and vice versa. HAWTS (small, medium , large or giant) will always out perform VAWTS but they are just out of the question in around housing BECAUSE OF THE NOISE. Now look at a strip like the strip from Port Melbourne, through St. Kilda, down to Mordialloc and all the way to Frankston. Nos consider how many MEGAWATTS of solar inverters are already installed and doing NOTHING from late afternoon through to early morning.
1
@EngineeringwithRosie And here is the real thing to consider Rosie. We are due to shutdown at least 5 of our GIGAWATT class power stations before 2030. So you know I define a GIGAWATT class power station to be one that has a nameplate rating of greater than 1,000Mega Watts or more and supplies BASE LOAD POWER. And there is a giant problem around the world that's about to come hammering in on developed nations. We all built big base load power stations starting after WW2 and then continuing through the 50s & 60s, but by the 1970s with the population rapidly expanding they all became Gigawatt Class power stations. Some are huge like the one in Toronto at over 6 GW. But if you ga and look at the lists of power stations available in places like Wikipedia (it one of the easiest sources) you find something really odd. Despite population growth the entire developed world just stopped building them. California has only built 1 since 1990. We haven't built 1 since the late 90s and the French haven't built 1 since the mid 1990s. Other than a few exceptions like Hinkley Point C in Britain and c couple in America NOBODY in the West has built any new major power station in over 20 years. China and India are exceptions but they are developing rather than developed nations. The reason is simple, we all got conned by the economics clowns who told us to privatise everything. If you just paid several billion for an asset you need it to make money and preferably as much as possible. Its even better if you can raise the prices of what you produce, but that's not so easy because there are regulations. But there is an easy way around that. Don't build anything new and PREVENT (through lobbying) anyone from building anything new except smaller power stations that you can also buy into. As the population increases demand increases and basic supply demand economics drive the price UP while your costs remain almost stationary. Its super bonus time for 20+ years and it only gets better and better. So here we are 25+ years later with a bunch of rapidly ageing power stations and almost no way to replace them before they fail or shutdown through age. So to simply keep our society going we will need every last kW of generating capacity we have producing at its best. Fun times ahead.
1
@jobicek Sorry but this is a totally irrelevant discussion 2 years later. And i wont apologise for being blunt. FIRST - I never advocated for a forest of turbines on towers, that's just straw manning on your part. I advocated for small turbines to take advantage of afternoon and evening breezes in coastal areas or those near large bodies of water that also generate such breezes and in doing that they could piggy back onto existing roof top solar systems. SO YOUR STAW MANNING IS SERIOUSLY ANNOYING. SECOND - right now we either start generating enough energy and distributing it effectively or ENTIRE ENERGY GRIDS are at risk. I first became aware of the energy grid issues during a 2016 project into Australia's future needs. 8 year later and we have NOT got 1 single major power station project underway except for a pumped hydro storage system that's blown its original estimate by a factor of 10. THIRD - I am damn tired of clown brained idiots who think they know WTF they are talking about. You people have held sway over public discourse for years preventing ANYONE from DOING ANYTHING and what have you got done? EVERYONE IS NOW PAYING HIGH PRICES FOR ENERGY EITHER you and your kind start putting forward realistic proposals that ACTUALLY can work or do us all a favor and STFU & GTF OUT OF THE WAY because a couple of billion people are getting effing tired of high energy prices.
1