Wind turbine and solar panels or not?

[geem]

We are currently in the Caribbean. It's always pretty windy here but very few people are now using wind turbines. The reality is that solar is cheap and efficient with zero maintenance. Are wind turbines a thing of the past?
My Duogen is 20 years old. It's not been the most reliable thing on the boat to say the least but there are times when it's handy. Most of the time it's contribution is pitiful under wind mode compared to the solar even in the windy Caribbean.
The manufacturer has said he can no longer support it fully and some parts are now obsolete. I won't be replacing it with another wind turbine or Duogen. In the day and age of efficient solar and efficient fridges, lighting and electronics, in my view it no longer has a roll. They are way too expensive compared to solar.
In it's towed generator mode the Dougen is great with high output but with the amount of Sargasso weed about now and discarded fishing gear that broke our Duogen crossing the pond last time, you have wonder if its still worth it.

 

[jac]

The only place where i can see it having a role is high latitude cruisers where strong winds are plentiful and sunlight limited but that is a pretty niche market. I know that modern models are more productive and efficient but at the end of the day you still face issues of vibration, maintenance of moving parts, the physical risk of blades moving at high speed meeting flesh. You would have to be a pretty intensive energy user now in normal conditions to be unable to meet requirements from solar alone

 

[LadyInBed]

I had WG & Solar. The WG was in need of major refurb or replacement after twenty years of use, but looking at the cost I decided that it wasn't worth the cost. Cheaper to increase the Solar if necessary.

 

[Moonbeam]

We had a Rutland wind genny and a small solar panel on an arch over the cockpit. The Rutland ended up staying tied off all the time.

At anchor, you seek shelter, away from the wind! Under sail on passage and healing, gravity and waves sent the Rutland all over the place so it was hardly ever doing it's job then either. As already pointed out...Noisy, vibration, etc etc. I ended up removing the Rutland.

Solar panel on the other hand was excellent.

 

[noelex]

Wind generators can be valuable, but finding a suitable place to mount them where they will not shade the solar panels is difficult.

As solar panels do poorly with even a small amount of shade, there can sometimes be little gain, or even a net loss from installing a wind generator In some installations.

 

[Fr J Hackett]

Wind generators can be valuable, but finding a suitable place to mount them where they will not shade the solar panels is difficult.

As solar panels do poorly with even a small amount of shade, there can sometimes be little gain, or even a net loss from installing a wind generator In some installations.

Personally I find the thought of mounting a wind generator quite abhorrent, the smell alone is bad enough with most of them.

 

[SaltyC]

I have Rutland 1200 and 30W solar on garage hatch.

Solar is reasonable in summer but contributes very little in winter, minimal sun on West Coast and shadow from harbour wall.

WG will run all power requirements when sailing with top F3 and over forward of the beam. Fridge and Full electronics, GPS, plotter and repeater etc etc
Yes there is noise but not noticeable when sailing, shut down at night on controller..

 

[wingcommander]

Personally I find the thought of mounting a wind generator quite abhorrent, the smell alone is bad enough with most of them.

Easy pink, or difficult brown ?

 

[Rappey]

Are wind turbines a thing of the past?

No, but are very expensive for what they are and often very noisy.
Aerogens are about the only one that run quietly provided they are mounted on an aluminium pole which hugely reduces transmitted noise.
A winters night in newtown creek with 25-30 knots of wind blowing gives me nearly 10 amps . Solar gives zero and not much better on a overcast day.
Location and when you sail plays a big part.
If you can pick up a cheap turbine then whats not to like for a device that costs nothing to run for at least 25 years ? Its a great supplement to solar.

 

[mattonthesea]

I had an Aerogen 6. In the Caribbean it was fantastic; quiet and efficient.

Present boat came with Rutland; noisy and inefficient. We only used it as a trickle charger for the batteries during off season and when not on the boat. Removed it last autumn. Just moving to Lithium so wondering if trickle is ever needed again. I would probably buy a windgen if selling up but that's not going to happen!

 

[geem]

I think the size of the wind turbine, size of the solar array and load of fridges and freezers makes a difference. We have a fridge freezer and a seperate fridge. The solar array is 720w and the Duogen is 1.1m turbine. The same performance as the D400 turbine. It uses the same blades and alternator.
There aren't many wind turbines on boats more powerful than the D400 but compared to 720w of solar its performance is minimal. It has to be blowing more than 20kts to keep the batteries fully charged over night. More than 100w from it is rare. By comparison the solar is often showing 500/600w peak during the day and occasionally its full 720w output.
If you have a tiny solar installation then yes, a wind turbines output can seem significant by comparison. The cost of a D400 is about £2k. My solar cost less than £500

 

[Mistroma]

I have Rutland 1200 and 30W solar on garage hatch.

Solar is reasonable in summer but contributes very little in winter, minimal sun on West Coast and shadow from harbour wall.

WG will run all power requirements when sailing with top F3 and over forward of the beam. Fridge and Full electronics, GPS, plotter and repeater etc etc
Yes there is noise but not noticeable when sailing, shut down at night on controller..

Probably a bit unfair to compare a Rutland 1200 (£1,400 ? with a 30W panel at £20-£25). Pretty certain the panel gives more bang per buck by a factor of 8-10.

 

[Kelpie]

Our boat had a Rutland on it, the seller warned us that he'd already had hundreds of pounds spent on it and not to throw any more money at it. It made a hell of a noise when running, and stopped producing any power on the delivery home.
Took it off and fitted extra solar, and haven't looked back!

 

[GHA]

With solar & lithium, no point for wind any more really. Not that it did much apart from put out loads a few nights a year, rest of the time it just shaded a panel.
Lithium sucks up the solar all day if it wants to unlike lead which drip fed all afternoon to hopefully get back to near full.

 

[Neeves]

We have an LVM Aero4Aqua gen its marvellous in water mode and because we have it - is 'ok' in wind mode (and its silent in wind mode). I do wish we had bought the Aero6aqua gen. Our unit sits on a cranked pole set aft of the bridgedeck transom, it over hangs the davits. Our house bank is lead and 400a/hr

At anchor we use much less power than when on passage. Our needs are thus dictated by 'on passage' - when we need the fridge, freezer, lights (domestic/navigation), AP, instruments and de-sal - its at this point the solar is less than adequate (some times the sun does not shine and usually sails shade parts of the solar) but the 'aquagen' fills in the gap and more so.

Its 2023 and we take regular, freshwater, hot, showers - and maybe more so in the (Australian) winter but also because we can (and it is 2023)

Now we would buy a WattnSea (and hope that the 20 year old LVM keeps running in wind mode), we would have solar and also Lithium (which gives a bit more wriggle room). BUT - we would not rely on solar (nor want to run an engine (at anchor)

So the discussion in 2023 might not be wind vs solar but water vs solar - and the answer might depend on how much you 'sail' and how much you are at anchor. It also depends on what you have now - why throw out a perfectly reliable Aqua4 gen and buy a WattnSea - maybe tomorrow.

Instead of the dual use LVM unit, or the Duogen I have wondered why not a dual use electric outboard.......or extend the discussion to include dual use electric to replace the inboard diesel.

Its a time of significant change and discussing a wind gen but not questioning all electric???.......

My response is a bit academic as you cannot buy a LVM device - it is long closed and all electric is still in its infancy.

Jonathan

We do have solar, flexible - and we spend time and money replacing the oldish flexible panels.

 

[ean_p]

Personally I find the thought of mounting a wind generator quite abhorrent, the smell alone is bad enough with most of them.

depends on what you give them to eat and drink........certainly no Guinness...!