Water pumping with wind power dates back almost a thousand years.  Probably the best historical examples are the Dutch land reclamation windmills and the irrigation windmills on Crete.

The American multi-blade windmill was a critical technology (others included barbed wire and the “six gun” pistol) in the settlement of the American West in the 19th century.

Mechanical windmills are still in production and thousands are installed  every year.  The amazing thing is that the design of these windmills has not changed for over a hundred years.  The reason is that they were so well designed in the first place.  The major U.S. manufacturers are Aermotor (San Angelo, TX) and Dempster (Beatrice, NE).

A new competing technology, wind-electric water pumping, was developed by Bergey WindPower and the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture in the 1980’s.  These systems use a wind turbine, generating electricity, to power standard electric submersible water pumps.

Windmills work very well at low wind speeds, so they tend to give more reliable water supply than wind-electric systems.  But, the wind-electric systems are more efficient over a wide range of wind speeds, they can pump higher volumes of water, and the wind turbine can be placed far from the well.  Perhaps most important, wind-electric systems need much less maintenance.

In general, mechanical windmills and solar pumps are best for small quantities of water and low pumping heads.  Wind-electric systems, like the Bergey 1.5 and 10 kW units, are better for large-scale livestock watering applications, small plot irrigation, and village water supply.

Wind-electric water pumping equipment packages cost in the range of $8,000 - $25,000.

Here at our web site you can size a system for your needs, calculate the performance and economics of a Bergey wind system for your pumping application … and you can even learn how to buy it directly and install it yourself.