Mr. Ron Hames installed a 10 kW Bergey wind system at his home in 1984 to reduce his utility bills. Mr. Hames brother, Jim, also installed a 10 kW Bergey turbine at his home. The two brothers also installed a third Bergey turbine at their business, R & M Mechanical Contractors. In each case they were able to take advantage of federal and state tax credits (which expired in 1985).

The Hames brothers both live East of Norman in an area of rolling hills. Their business (see the R&M Mechanical Case Study) is ~ 5 miles West in the North part of Norman, where the terrain is more open and less hilly. Even though the wind resource is essentially the same in both areas the two home turbines in the hilly area produce ~ 30% less energy than the business system. It seems that the hilly terrain causes the wind to slow down closer to ground level.

The Hames brothers have had a lot of problems with their inverters, which have had to be repaired a number of times. They both have the older Powersync inverters, which were less robust than the new Gridtek inverter. In the Hames residential systems much of the electronics problems can be traced back to weak rural coop power lines. Their weak power line leads to frequent voltage sags (“brown-outs”) and large voltage surges during thunderstorms. In spite of the problems, the systems are still in operation and reducing their utility bills.

[Show as slideshow]

The utility in this case is a rural cooperative, Oklahoma Electric Cooperative. The system is on net metering, so excess production carries over into the next billing period. The wind turbine is installed approximately 250 ft. behind the house on a 100 ft. guyed-lattice tower. Other than some electronics problems relating to a malfunctioning circuit breaker and one lightning strike, the system has worked reliably since installation. At this point the wind system has repaid its initial investment entirely and the Epperson’s enjoy receiving over half of the electricity they consume for free.

[Show as slideshow]

Power for the Beard residence outside Reno, Nevada is provided by a Bergey XL.1 1,000 W wind turbine, 1,000 W of solar, and a 12 kW back-up generator. Besides the usual complement of high-efficiency lights and appliances found in typical off-grid homes, the Beard home is air-conditioned. The system was installed in December, 2002 by Alternative Energy Solutions in Reno. This was a difficult installation due to the sloped terrain and the rocky soil. The XL.1 is installed on a 13m (42 ft) Tilt-up tower. BWC recommends against installing on a slope, if possible, because of the slanted wind flow through the rotor, but in this case the hill behind the house was the only area available for the turbine. Note the above ground electrical conduit and custom rock anchors required due to the rocky soil.

The Desert Research Institute (DRI) in Reno, Nevada is currently conducting an experiment in using hydrogen to store energy from renewable resources like wind and solar. Hydrogen has the potential to be a cost effective and versatile method of storing and transporting energy. Hydrogen, for example, can be stored over much longer periods than electricity in batteries. This project, which is supported by the US-DOE, is a precursor to a larger project that DRI hopes to install in Alaska in a few years.

The prototype system includes two Bergey 1.5 kW wind turbines on 100 ft guyed-lattice towers, a small (~ 1.2 kW) solar array, an electrolyzer to produce hydrogen, a hydrogen storage system, and a 4 kW fuel-cell to convert hydrogen back into electricity. The system was installed over the summer of 1999 and commissioned in October 1999.

[Show as slideshow]

These systems were originally installed on 80 ft. guyed-lattice towers as wind-electric pumping systems for an experimental farm operated by the Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems. The plan was to pump water from the Rio Grande for irrigation. Unfortunately, there were many problems with the pumping scheme, including heavy sediments and pollution from the river water. In 1996, it was decided to convert the wind turbines into grid-connected units to help the College reduce its utility bills. This change required new alternators, Powersync inverters, and the installation of an equipment building. The wind turbines are now inter-connected with Central Power & Light, reducing Laredo Community Colleges utility bills by about $250 per month.

The Hershey Park Renewable Energy Project features the Green Team 3000, an entertainment show about clean energy, sponsored by DEP and Sustainable Energy Fund, with partial funding supplied by the U.S. Department of Energy, a 80-foot tall Bergey 10 kW wind turbine provided by Energy Unlimited, Inc. with support from the Sustainable Energy Fund, and 60 photovoltaic (PV) solar panels donated to the park by CEI.

The wind turbine and the solar panels combined will be producing almost 30,000 kWhs of clean electricity for the park each year.

The amount of clean electricity generated from both the wind turbine and the solar panels will be displayed in real-time on two educational signs near the Project. Combined, the solar panels and wind turbine are expected to produce approximately 30,000 kWhrs of electricity which will be fed directly into the Park’s electrical grid for use by the Park as a replacement for conventional sources of electricity. The environmental benefits associated with the production of electricity by the Renewable Energy Project is equal to not driving almost 30,000 miles or planting over 2,000 trees each year, according to the developers.

“The Renewable Energy Project is a great way to get a very important environmental message across to people of all ages,” DEP Secretary Kathleen A. McGinty said. “The Green Team, the wind turbine and the solar panels are all pieces to a much larger environmental puzzle, to which everyone can contribute.”

Renewable energy marketer Community Energy, Inc. donated the solar power system to the park to promote renewable energy education and outreach, with design advisement and cost estimation provided by McKissick Associates, PC, and construction services provided by Caldwell Heckles and Egan, Inc.

The 10 kW turbine was manufactured by Bergey Windpower Corporation, and supplied by West Conshohocken-based wind developer, Energy Unlimited, Inc. (EUI), with support from the Sustainable Energy Fund.

[Show as slideshow]

The National Wind Technology Center (NWTC) is part of NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory), one of US-DOE’s national laboratories.The NWTC, with a staff of 80 and an annual budget of ~ $20 million, is America’s lead research organization and facility for wind turbine research. It is located outside Boulder, Colorado in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. While the NWTC has only a modest annual average wind speed (4.5 m/s or 10 mph), it is a very good place to test the robustness of a wind system because it regularly gets wind storms with winds in excess of 54 m/s (120 mph). Dozens of commercial and prototype wind turbines have been damaged or destroyed by these fierce winds while undergoing testing at the Rocky Flats site of the NWTC.

A 10 kW Bergey wind turbine was installed in 1984 at the US-DOE Rocky Flats facility (which became the NWTC in 1995). The photo above shows the Bergey turbine installed on its 30 m (100 ft) Tilt-up tower, with the main laboratory building in the background. Over the years this turbine has been used for grid-intertie tests, blade structural load tests, battery-charging tests, and has been shown to thousands of visitors. This turbine is currently in use on a village power test set-up on a different tower. This Bergey Excel, now 15 years old, is the longest running turbine at the NWTC.

VLA has a Bergey 7.5 kW wind turbine on a locally built 24 m (80 ft) guyed Tilt-up tower, a 48 VDC battery bank, a Trace 4.5 kW (50 Hz) inverter, and a 5 kW Honda back-up generator. The system was installed in 1997 by NREL and a local private sector utility company, Frontel.

The wind system has performed without problems, but the inverter was damaged after ~ one year due to a lightning strike and had to be substantially rebuilt. After the lightning strike it was determined that the tower grounding had not been installed correctly, leaving the system more susceptible to voltage surges.

There have also been some problems with the Honda generator and the local system management. But, overall, the system has been reliable. It seems, however, that the wind resource is less than expected so the diesel fuel consumption is higher than predicted.

The VLA project, along with two other NREL/CNE pilot projects in Region IX, have shown that wind/diesel systems are an effective alternative to diesel-only systems.

In Region X two additional pilot projects are underway and the Governors office and CNE have developed a plan to electrify ~ 40 villages in the Chiloe Islands with wind/diesel systems. Bergey WindPower now has an experienced dealer in Region X, Wireless Energy, and hopes to be actively involved with the Chiloe Islands project in the coming years.

The first pilot installation for the Chiloe Islands project was installed at Isla Tac in 2000. The president of Chile attended the inauguration of the system. You can view a report on the first year of operation by clicking here (1,158 KB, PDF). Use the “Back” button to return to this page.

Costa de Cocos has been built-up over the last 15 years by Dave and Maria Randall who moved down from Minnesota after several years of vacationing in the area. The resort now consists of 12 cabanas (each with a full bath), a restaurant/bar, a dive shop, and a workshop. It’s remote location and its proximity to the famous Chinchorro Reef (second largest reef system after the Great Barrier Reef) make Costa de Cocos a popular destination from September to May.

The resort was powered by a succession of small (5-20 kW) diesel generators that provided electricity ~ 4 hours each evening. In 1992 they installed a 2.5 kW Trace inverter and a small battery bank, which extended power availability to ~10 hours a day. In 1996, with partial support from NREL, they installed a Bergey 7.5 kW turbine, a 48 VDC battery bank, and two Trace 5.5 kW inverters, which supplies the resort with power 24 hours a day.

The tower is a 24 m (80 ft) guyed Tilt-up with the Enhanced Corrosion Option supplied by BWC. The system was installed under BWC supervision in November, 1996. The wind system and one of the guest cabanas are shown above on the left. The electrical controls, conversion, and storage system is shown above on the right. The batteries are located behind the electronics a specially designed integrated rack assembly.

Since installation the wind system has operated without any problems. One inverter did fail after 2 1/2 years due (we believe) to a wiring problem on instrumentation added to the system to track its performance. However, there was no downtime for the system because the second inverter was able to carry the load while the first one was being repaired. The operation of the system is thoroughly monitored by researchers at NREL and the Southwest Technology Development Institute.

[Show as slideshow]