Technical Corner
Is it a good idea to supplement my solar panels with a windturbine?
It is important to really think through if it makes sense to add a windturbine. A windturbine is expensive and noisy (some more than others, but all make noise), it has moving parts and it needs regular maintenance. The physics behind the energy production in a windturbine, requires quite a lot of wind before it will produce any reasonable amount of power. The energy in the wind passing the wind turbine is a function of the 3rd power (2x wind velocity = 8x energy).
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The turbine's blades are optimized for a given wind speed, so its power curve does not exactly follow the curve for energy in the wind, but that is is quite close. Find the data sheet for your wind turbine and look at the power curve, then you will understand what we mean. But the biggest problem with a wind turbine on a solar arch, is that it shades the solar panels! And it's a bigger problem than most people realize.
Even a tiny bit of shadow the size of an A4 sheet causes a panel to practically stop producing power. So, consider it carefully and think especially about what areas you are going to sail in, as well as your expected sailing pattern.
If you are primarily going to sail in sunny waters without frequent winds above 8 m / s, then it may be best to save money, get rid of the noise and get the most out of your solar panels.
Read more about why one of our customers decided to skip the windturbine and only have solar panels:
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