#wind electricity

[atompowers]

“What I need is the dandelion in the spring. The bright yellow that means rebirth instead of destruction. The promise that life can go on, no matter how bad our losses. That it can be good again.” ― Suzanne Collins, Mockingjay

[shanjanblog]

Small Wind Turbines for Home: A Comprehensive Guide to Residential Wind Power

As the world increasingly turns to renewable energy sources, small wind turbines for home use have emerged as a viable option for homeowners seeking to reduce their reliance on traditional energy grids. Wind energy, known for its sustainability and efficiency, is now accessible on a smaller scale, making it possible for individuals to harness the power of the wind right in their own backyards. This comprehensive guide will explore everything you need to know about small wind turbines, including their benefits, how they work, and what to consider when installing one at your home.

What is a Small Wind Turbine?

A small wind turbine is a device that converts wind energy into electricity for residential use. Unlike large-scale wind farms that generate power for thousands of homes, small wind turbines are designed for individual households, typically producing between 1 kW and 10 kW of power. These systems are ideal for homeowners who live in areas with consistent wind patterns and who are interested in reducing their carbon footprint and energy bills.

How Do Small Wind Turbines Work?

Small wind turbines operate on the same basic principles as their larger counterparts. The turbine’s blades capture the kinetic energy from the wind, which then rotates a generator to produce electricity. This electricity can be used to power a home, stored in batteries for later use, or even fed back into the grid in some cases. The efficiency of a small wind turbine depends on several factors, including wind speed, turbine height, and the local environment.

Benefits of Small Wind Turbines

1. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Source

One of the most significant benefits of small wind turbines is that they provide a renewable and sustainable source of energy. Unlike fossil fuels, wind energy is inexhaustible and produces no harmful emissions. By installing a small wind turbine, homeowners can significantly reduce their environmental impact and contribute to the global shift towards clean energy.

2. Cost Savings

While the initial cost of a small wind turbine can be high, the long-term savings on energy bills can be substantial. Once the system is installed, the wind energy it produces is free. Over time, this can lead to significant reductions in monthly electricity costs, making it an attractive option for eco-conscious homeowners. In addition, many regions offer incentives and rebates for renewable energy installations, further offsetting the cost.

3. Energy Independence

Small wind turbines offer homeowners the opportunity to become more energy independent. By generating their own electricity, they are less reliant on the grid and less vulnerable to power outages. This can be particularly beneficial in remote areas where grid access is limited or where energy costs are high.

4. Low Maintenance

Small wind turbines are relatively low maintenance. Once installed, they require only periodic inspections and occasional repairs. Most systems are designed to last for 20 years or more, making them a long-term investment in sustainable energy.

Considerations Before Installing a Small Wind Turbine

1. Location and Wind Speed

The location of your home is a critical factor in the effectiveness of a small wind turbine. Ideally, you should live in an area with consistent wind speeds of at least 5 meters per second (about 11 mph). The turbine should also be placed on a tall tower, typically at least 30 feet above any surrounding obstacles like trees or buildings, to capture the most wind.

2. Zoning and Permits

Before installing a small wind turbine, it’s important to check local zoning regulations and obtain the necessary permits. Some areas may have restrictions on the height of structures, noise levels, or the distance the turbine must be from property lines. It’s essential to comply with all local regulations to avoid potential fines or the need to remove the turbine after installation.

3. Initial Costs

The cost of a small wind turbine can vary widely depending on its size, type, and installation requirements. On average, a residential wind turbine system can cost between $10,000 and $70,000, including installation. While this may seem like a significant investment, the potential for long-term savings on energy bills and the availability of incentives can make it a worthwhile consideration.

4. Maintenance and Lifespan

While small wind turbines are generally low maintenance, they do require some upkeep. Regular inspections are necessary to ensure that the turbine is functioning properly and to address any wear and tear. The lifespan of a small wind turbine is typically around 20-25 years, but this can vary depending on the quality of the equipment and the conditions in which it operates.

Types of Small Wind Turbines

1. Horizontal Axis Wind Turbines (HAWTs)

Horizontal Axis Wind Turbines are the most common type of wind turbines, recognizable by their large, propeller-like blades. These turbines are highly efficient and are best suited for areas with consistent, strong winds. However, they require more space and are often mounted on taller towers to capture the most wind energy.

2. Vertical Axis Wind Turbines (VAWTs)

Vertical Axis Wind Turbines have a different design, with blades that rotate around a vertical axis. These turbines are less common but offer some advantages, including the ability to operate in turbulent wind conditions and a lower profile that can be more aesthetically pleasing in residential settings. VAWTs are typically less efficient than HAWTs, but they are easier to maintain and can be placed closer to the ground.

Ecojoyful Living with Small Wind Turbines

Incorporating a small wind turbine into your home’s energy system is not just a step towards energy independence; it’s a commitment to a more sustainable and ecojoyful lifestyle. By reducing your reliance on traditional energy sources, you’re contributing to the fight against climate change and setting an example for others to follow. The satisfaction of knowing that your home is powered by clean, renewable energy is a reward in itself, making small wind turbines an investment not just in your home, but in the future of the planet.

Conclusion

Small wind turbines offer a practical and sustainable solution for homeowners looking to reduce their energy costs and environmental impact. While the initial investment can be significant, the long-term benefits, including cost savings, energy independence, and a reduced carbon footprint, make it a worthwhile consideration. As more people embrace renewable energy, small wind turbines will play an increasingly important role in the transition to a more ecojoyful and sustainable future.

[reasonsforhope]

Masterpost: Reasons I firmly believe we will beat climate change

Posts are in reverse chronological order (by post date, not article date), mostly taken from my "climate change" tag, which I went through all the way back to the literal beginning of my blog. Will update periodically.

Especially big deal articles/posts are in bold.

Big picture:

Mature trees offer hope in world of rising emissions (x)

Spying from space: How satellites can help identify and rein in a potent climate pollutant (x)

Good news: Tiny urban green spaces can cool cities and save lives (x)

Conservation and economic development go hand in hand, more often than expected (x)

The exponential growth of solar power will change the world (x)

Sun Machines: Solar, an energy that gets cheaper and cheaper, is going to be huge (x)

Wealthy nations finally deliver promised climate aid, as calls for more equitable funding for poor countries grow (x)

For Earth Day 2024, experts are spreading optimism – not doom. Here's why. (x)

Opinion: I’m a Climate Scientist. I’m Not Screaming Into the Void Anymore. (x)

The World’s Forests Are Doing Much Better Than We Think (x)

‘Staggering’ green growth gives hope for 1.5C, says global energy chief (x)

Beyond Catastrophe: A New Climate Reality Is Coming Into View (x)

Young Forests Capture Carbon Quicker than Previously Thought (x)

Yes, climate change can be beaten by 2050. Here's how. (x)

Soil improvements could keep planet within 1.5C heating target, research shows (x)

The global treaty to save the ozone layer has also slowed Arctic ice melt (x)

The doomers are wrong about humanity’s future — and its past (x)

Scientists Find Methane is Actually Offsetting 30% of its Own Heating Effect on Planet (x)

Are debt-for-climate swaps finally taking off? (x)

High seas treaty: historic deal to protect international waters finally reached at UN (x)

How Could Positive ‘Tipping Points’ Accelerate Climate Action? (x)

Specific examples:

Environmental Campaigners Celebrate As Labour Ends Tory Ban On New Onshore Wind Projects (x)

Private firms are driving a revolution in solar power in Africa (x)

How the small Pacific island nation of Vanuatu drastically cut plastic pollution (x)

Rewilding sites have seen 400% increase in jobs since 2008, research finds [Scotland] (x)

The American Climate Corps take flight, with most jobs based in the West (x)

Waste Heat Generated from Electronics to Warm Finnish City in Winter Thanks to Groundbreaking Thermal Energy Project (x)

Climate protection is now a human right — and lawsuits will follow [European Union] (x)

A new EU ecocide law ‘marks the end of impunity for environmental criminals’ (x)

Solar hits a renewable energy milestone not seen since WWII [United States] (x)

These are the climate grannies. They’ll do whatever it takes to protect their grandchildren. [United States and Native American Nations] (x)

Century of Tree Planting Stalls the Warming Effects in the Eastern United States, Says Study (x)

Chart: Wind and solar are closing in on fossil fuels in the EU (x)

UK use of gas and coal for electricity at lowest since 1957, figures show (x)

Countries That Generate 100% Renewable Energy Electricity (x)

Indigenous advocacy leads to largest dam removal project in US history [United States and Native American Nations] (x)

India’s clean energy transition is rapidly underway, benefiting the entire world (x)

China is set to shatter its wind and solar target five years early, new report finds (x)

‘Game changing’: spate of US lawsuits calls big oil to account for climate crisis (x)

Largest-ever data set collection shows how coral reefs can survive climate change (x)

The Biggest Climate Bill of Your Life - But What Does It DO? [United States] (x)

Good Climate News: Headline Roundup April 1st through April 15th, 2023 (x)

How agroforestry can restore degraded lands and provide income in the Amazon (x) [Brazil]

Loss of Climate-Crucial Mangrove Forests Has Slowed to Near-Negligable Amount Worldwide, Report Hails (x)

Agroecology schools help communities restore degraded land in Guatemala (x)

Climate adaptation:

Solar-powered generators pull clean drinking water 'from thin air,' aiding communities in need: 'It transforms lives' (x)

‘Sponge’ Cities Combat Urban Flooding by Letting Nature Do the Work [China] (x)

Indian Engineers Tackle Water Shortages with Star Wars Tech in Kerala (x)

A green roof or rooftop solar? You can combine them in a biosolar roof — boosting both biodiversity and power output (x)

Global death tolls from natural disasters have actually plummeted over the last century (x)

Los Angeles Just Proved How Spongy a City Can Be (x)

This city turns sewage into drinking water in 24 hours. The concept is catching on [Namibia] (x)

Plants teach their offspring how to adapt to climate change, scientists find (x)

Resurrecting Climate-Resilient Rice in India (x)

Other Masterposts:

Going carbon negative and how we're going to fix global heating (x)

[marenwithanm]

Still not sure how Tetra knows what a horse is but oh well lol

[dorothywonderland]

Great wind God, aeolus I don't know if you know this But our path to home is blocked by an impenetrable storm

Trying some character design for epic the musical, first up is my boy aeolus. Wanted something simple overall so the "hair" can be the main attraction, might change a thing or two

[moldwood]

its a shame that scientology is the name of a rich person cult and not a really cool religion that thinks of scientific equations and laws of physics as a celestial language that allows us to understand the universe and the energies of wind and gravity and that the forces that act on the world around us are holy and curiosity to learn about them is holy and being a scholar learning to fight against them and work with them and discover new ones makes you a prophet. or whatever

[deargravity]

live footage of me being extremely normal about tsubaki

[rui-drawsbox]

Silly doodles i did in the sketchbook i use once every month lmao

[front-facing-pokemon]

[legendary-cookies]

Snapdragon - Mischief

[atompowers]

A scattered dream that's like a far-off memory… a far-off memory that's like a scattered dream… i want to line the pieces up… yours and mine. —Kingdom Hearts 2

[saccharinescorpion]

popular opinion: all three of these are fantastic designs

unpopular opinion: they should all be girls

[reasonsforhope]

hey, how do you cope with people saying we only have a small amount of time left to stop the worst effects of climate change? no matter how hopeful and ok i am, that always sends me back into a spiral :(

A few different ways

1. The biggest one is that I do math. Because renewable energy is growing exponentially

Up until basically 2021 to now, all of the climate change models were based on the idea that our ability to handle climate change will grow linearly. But that's wrong: it's growing exponentially, most of all in the green energy sector. And we're finally starting to see proof of this - and that it's going to keep going.

And many types of climate change mitigation serve as multipliers for other types. Like building a big combo in a video game.

Change has been rapidly accelerating and I genuinely believe that it's going to happen much faster than anyone is currently predicting

2. A lot of the most exciting and groundbreaking things happening around climate change are happening in developing nations, so they're not on most people's radars.

But they will expand, as developing nations are widely undergoing a massive boom in infrastructure, development, and quality of life - and as they collaborate and communicate with each other in doing so

3. Every country, state, city, province, town, nonprofit, community, and movement is basically its own test case

We're going to figure out the best ways to handle things in a remarkably quick amount of time, because everyone is trying out solutions at once. Instead of doing 100 different studies on solutions in order, we get try out 100 (more like 10,000) different versions of different solutions simultaneously, and then figure out which ones worked best and why. The spread of solutions becomes infinitely faster, especially as more and more of the world gets access to the internet and other key infrastructure

4. There's a very real chance that many of the impacts of climate change will be reversible

Yeah, you read that right.

Will it take a while? Yes. But we're mostly talking a few decades to a few centuries, which is NOTHING in geological history terms.

We have more proof than ever of just how resilient nature is. Major rivers are being restored from dried up or dead to thriving ecosystems in under a decade. Life bounces back so fast when we let it.

I know there's a lot of skepticism about carbon capture and carbon removal. That's reasonable, some of those projects are definitely bs (mostly the ones run by gas companies, involving carbon credits, and/or trying to pump CO2 thousands of feet underground)

But there's very real potential for carbon removal through restoring ecosystems and regenerative agriculture

The research into carbon removal has also just exploded in the past three years, so there are almost certainly more and better technologies to come

There's also some promising developments in industrial carbon removal, especially this process of harvesting atmospheric CO2 and other air pollution to make baking soda and other industrially useful chemicals

As we take carbon out of the air in larger amounts, less heat will be trapped in the atmosphere

If less heat is trapped in the atmosphere, then the planet will start to cool down

If the planet starts to cool down, a lot of things will stabilize again. And they'll probably start to stabilize pretty quickly

[mewtwoandme]

My town's power has been out since this morning and it doesn't look like it's gonna get turned back on anytime soon, going on nearly 11 hours so far without lights, water or heat, so that's been fun, gonna drop down into the 20°s tonight :V

Just hoping they resolve this tonight or if worse comes to worst, maybe tomorrow morning.

[m00nb04rd5]

Idk if you've done him before but if not could you do Diavolo please?

Diavolo (JJBA Part 5)

[dandelionsresilience]

Dandelion News - September 1-7

Like these weekly compilations? Tip me at $kaybarr1735 or check out my new(ly repurposed) Patreon!

1. Rescue Dog Who Helped Raise Dozens of Foster Puppies Finds Forever Home

“Three and a half years ago, Noel arrived at Lucky Dog as a pregnant pooch pulled from [an] animal control shelter. […] Once the puppies were old enough to start life on their own, Lucky Dog found homes for all of them. […] Noel was an "amazing mom" to over two dozen foster puppies while staying at [a foster] house.”

2. Radiant cooling device uses significantly less energy than traditional air conditioning

“Testing of the device […] showed the cooling device capable of cooling the skin by approximately 7.3°C. It also showed that it consumed 50.4% less energy than an average air-conditioner of comparable ability. The research team notes that the device can also be run in reverse, to serve as a radiant heater.”

3. How a Native elections official is breaking down voting barriers in Arizona

“Gabriella Cázares-Kelly, Pima County Recorder, [… ran for office in 2020] to represent people who were being ignored by the democratic system and denied the right to vote. […] “People started getting the voter registration cards back, getting their voter IDs in the mail, and they were so excited to show me or thank me for helping them register,” she said.”

4. Scientists are growing [coral] babies in a lab to save animals from extinction

“Each August, corals in Florida release their eggs and sperm into the water[, … but “they] can’t reproduce on their own anymore.” [So, researchers are] collecting and freezing the spawn and growing them into genetically diverse baby corals that can be replanted into the wild[….] These resilient corals could pass important adaptations to their babies[….]”

5. New Legislation Will Accelerate Offshore Wind Energy in Delaware

““The responsible development of offshore wind and the transition to renewable energy is essential for the protection of wildlife, habitats, and communities from the havoc of climate change[….]” “This legislation is the product of careful consideration and input from multiple state agencies, industry experts, energy researchers and environmental advocates[….]””

6. Removal of Apache Trout from Endangered Species List Due to Collaborative Conservation Efforts

“[A]fter more than five decades of recovery efforts by federal, state and Tribal partners, […] the restoration of Arizona’s state fish marks the first […] trout delisted due to recovery, a significant conservation success[….] The Apache trout is found exclusively in streams of the White Mountains in the eastern part of Arizona […] and is sacred to the White Mountain Apache Tribe.”

7. [Texas] State court rules Austin must release files on police complaint

“Under the act, records of any complaint – even if no disciplinary action was taken – must be handed over to the civilian-led Office of Police Oversight. [… T]he ruling ushers in a new level of oversight of the complaint process and the department writ-large.”

8. Super-rare hairy-nosed wombat caught waddling through a woodland in Australia

“Ecologists at Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC) say the video footage provides exciting evidence wombats are breeding in the refuge again. […] There are only 400 of them in the world, making them rarer than the giant panda and the Sumatran tiger. […] “Although this isn’t the first joey born at the refuge, it is the first juvenile spotted for a few years.””

9. The country’s biggest electric school-bus fleet will also feed the grid

“[The] country’s first all-electric school-bus fleet[,…] which serve the district’s special-needs students, […] can charge with low-cost power and discharge spare capacity at times of grid stress[…. V]ehicle-to-grid charging is something for which electric school buses are particularly well suited.”

10. The Push to Save Horseshoe Crabs Is Gaining Momentum

“Conservationists hope new restrictions on harvesting and synthetic alternatives to a crab-blood compound used in biomedical testing can turn the tide for the ancient arthropods, whose eggs are a vital food source for Red Knots [threatened migratory birds]. […] Now conservationists are in the thick of a multi-pronged push to save both species.”

August 22-28 news here | (all credit for images and written material can be found at the source linked; I don’t claim credit for anything but curating.)