50kW wind turbine installation, Maple Honda, Maple Ontario

It does not appear the tower can be climbed for repairs and maintenance. It will take a very expensive crane to work on this windmill. My general impression is that wind generators require a lot of ongoing maintenance.

The only regular maintenance required on this type of unit is changing the transmission oil every couple years depending on the duty factor and wind resource of the machine. Aside from that, the expected mechanical lifecycle is approximately 30 years before requiring a rebuild. Traditionally, these machines are installed on lattice towers.

hey there, how much does one of these suckers cost? will we see them on buildings any time soon? cheers.

p.s. .......................nice music

Too bad I almost never see it spinning, and I dont live too far.

for £100,000,000,000!!! And in terms of the all important 'carbon footprint' who is to say that 7K individual generators with all that concrete for foundations, logistics, steel, copper windings, massive infrastructure, added complications in terms of frequency to the grid, maintenance...doesn't add up to the C02 released from a couple of reliable coal stations? I don't know, haven't and probably can't do the math but in the end, I think as a national solution, the whole thing whiffs a bit.

with WTs. Anyway, enough of politics and lets get back to the science. Of course I can't say catergorically because I myself have never stood there and actually measured, but I have read from what I would consider to be fairly reliable sources that a turbine will on average produce over a year about 27% of its rated output. So if you tot this up over our learned governments (sorry, politics again) proposal of 7000 of them your talking the equivalent of just a couple of decent sized CFPSs...

on an already extortionate rate for your energy. There are two main directives...the RO (renewables obligation) and ETS (emissions trading scheme). It's all supposedly lovely save the planet stuff but its real aim is essentially to charge the customer a great deal more for what is a necessity rather than a luxury which is then returned to governments as almost completely invisible taxes. This I think is the real reason why we are now so keen to be covering our land and as you say sea...

You are indeed very informed on this issue, and I must say I agree with you, but think of it this way - at least they are investing in a green technology - there is much more concrete etc/CO2 emissions involved in building a single power station than thousands of WTs. At the very least, think of it this way - nobody has ever died, or wars been waged while trying to power a wind turbine. There are much worse things they could be spending their money on..

Been a pleasure talking to you Fox. Please don't get me wrong...the environment is of course of paramount importance to all of us and nothing distresses me more (apart from the wife getting angry about money) than the destruction of the rain forests...(bio fuels, but that's another argument) I love this project that you've posted and assure you that I can see the benefits for localised WTs...but as discussed, as a national solution I think it's a combo of gesture politics and making $.

which for reasons best known to the press and our national leaders is kept as quiet as possible. What I do know is that EU diktats now state that we must supply a certain percentage of our power from 'renewable' sources and our government has opted, like all others within the EU for wind. If you're in the wind industry I guess there couldn't be better news but for us minion consumers (and I tell you, hardly a single one of them are aware) you will be paying way over the odds...