Wind generator for Caribbean?

[Neeves]

There are a couple of places on the East side of Antigua, Green Island, North Sound where you anchor behind a reef so the sea is flat but you are in the full force of the Easterly Trades. I suspect this is where Roaringgirl was anchored. We are currently at Green Island and the batteries are full each morning if we leave our Duogen wind gen on overnight. This doesn't work in the normal anchorages on the leeward side of the island

I have to agree that the normal practice for anchoring is to find somewhere with shelter (and that is how many anchorages are defined as being anchorages - they offer shelter). This is contradictory to the value of a wind generator.

Jonathan

 

[roaringgirl]

Don't forget windgen also good when wind is on or in front of the beam.

In the tropics, the anchorages that offer protection from the swell, but have a breeze are awesome for more power *and* staying cool. Off the top of my head so far since leaving the UK these have all fallen into this category:
Various anchorages in the Spanish Rias
Cascais
Porto Santo
Madeira
Tenerife
Las Palmas
Marigot Bay, St Lucia
Sth end of St Vincent
Bequia
Chatham Bay, Union island
Frigate bay, Union island
Tobago Cays
Green Island & Great bird island, Antigua
Barbuda
Bonaire
Spanish water, Curacao
Las Brisas, Panama
Leeward side of Tahuata, French Polynesia (where we are now).

If we had more real-estate, I'd also have more solar; but the wind gen is mounted up the mizzen and doesn't shade anything, or make any noticeable noise. It's nice to be able to make some power on cloudy days and night time!

 

[geem]

Don't forget windgen also good when wind is on or in front of the beam.

In the tropics, the anchorages that offer protection from the swell, but have a breeze are awesome for more power *and* staying cool. Off the top of my head so far since leaving the UK these have all fallen into this category:
Various anchorages in the Spanish Rias
Cascais
Porto Santo
Madeira
Tenerife
Las Palmas
Marigot Bay, St Lucia
Sth end of St Vincent
Bequia
Chatham Bay, Union island
Frigate bay, Union island
Tobago Cays
Green Island & Great bird island, Antigua
Barbuda
Bonaire
Spanish water, Curacao
Las Brisas, Panama
Leeward side of Tahuata, French Polynesia (where we are now).

If we had more real-estate, I'd also have more solar; but the wind gen is mounted up the mizzen and doesn't shade anything, or make any noticeable noise. It's nice to be able to make some power on cloudy days and night time!

Our 720w of solar puts out 10 times the output of our Duogen turbine. Output of wind turbines is proportional to the swept area so go bigger and you will always get more output. I would need ten wind turbines to just to meet the output of my solar. By my reckoning, the output of a good wind turbine in the Caribbean is less than the output of a single 100w panel.
A friend has a Rutland. We worked out that in strong winds when ours was producing 8 amps the Rutland was producing 5 amps.
In the Caribbean there are windy seasons and not so windy seasons. The output of turbines at 20kts can be considerable. At 10kts, negligible even though the turbine is whizzing around.
We have meters measuring output on both wind and solar so this information is based on actual reading here in the Caribbean.
Yesterday was the first cloudy and rainy day we have had for a long time. The batteries still went to float mid afternoon. The wind turbine output was negligible. Solar was 1.51kw. Not bad on a cloudy wet day