Extending information,resources and links on renewable energy and energy conservation for Canadian farmers, agri-business and those who support them in order to enhance their ability to make sound and successful business decisions.
Showing posts with label CanWEA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CanWEA. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Small or Big Wind - How to decide?

I am in awe of wind power. I travel through Shelburne, Ontario periodically and the wind farm north of the town always takes my breath away. Although I'm interested in the large turbines, I see small wind as more of an opportunity. Our local Walmart has a small wind turbine that produces enough energy to light the store. I visited this week in silent support of their wind initiative as I prefer to shop elsewhere. While I shopped I came up with a list of things that I would consider in order to make decisions on wind energy:

Does it fit in my business?
What kind of equipment do I need?
How much does it cost?
What is the payback in my area? And more...

The Canadian Wind Energy Association (CanWEA) is one resource available to assist. See www.smallwindeenrgy.ca/en/SmallWind.html

The "acid test" was particularly interesting - it is a calculator that looks up wind performance and electricity rates in your area and examines performance of differenct sizes of turbines.

Do you have resources to share?