First turbine

The first wind turbine as a partial result of a Unity College wind assessment is up.

These pictures were just sent to me from United States Coast Guard Lieutenant Ashley Thomas of Southwest Harbor Coast Guard Station, Maine. These are official Coast Guard pictures and posted here with permission.

The turbine used is the Skystream 3.7, made by South West Windpower. It has a rated output of 2.4 kilowatts per hour of running time, ie, per hour of wind at or above the rated wind speed. The Skystream has a fairly high rated wind speed of 14/15 meters per second, as do most smaller turbines. On this site it is predicted to produce about 2,000 kilowatt hours per year, enough to meet about half the power requirements of an efficient home.

Students in two different Unity College classes made wind map comparisons between several Coast Guard station sites, and also between this turbine in its various tower configurations, as well as one or two comparably priced makes and models, providing the results to the Coast Guard to use to make the decision.

We also got a nice note from Lieutenant Thomas:


Mick,

I cordially wish to extend an official invitation to you (and any of your students/faculty that are interested) to a brief "Wind Turbine Raising" ceremony with us on Friday afternoon this week. We are raising up the tower and the turbine head at 2:30 pm on our Coast Guard housing site at 1 McEnroe rd in Southwest Harbor.

We went with a 70ft guyed tower and the 2.4 kW skystream- we hope that this turbine will be the starting point for additional endeavors in some of the locations that you and your students analyzed for us throughout the Maine Coast.

We would be delighted if you are able to stop by for any length of time- I apologize for the late notice. Anna and some of the COA folks are going to try to make it as well. I so appreciate all the help that you provided us, and want to acknowledge that during the ceremony!

Sincerely,

Ashly Thomas