“Wind Turbines for Home Energy: Are They Worth the Investment?”

A windmill for private use looks much less impressive than the wind turbines that you usually find along the highway or at sea. Placing a similar installation in your garden is simply not possible from a legal perspective.

After all, a private windmill in our country can only be a maximum of fifteen meters high. Rotor blades that are stretched too wide are also not an option because of the cast shadow. You also have to take into account noise standards and spatial integration.

“For private individuals, the range mainly consists of vertical axis wind turbines,” says Professor Lieven Vandevelde of Power-Link, the platform within Ghent University for energy transition projects. As the name suggests, such a type has a vertically rotating shaft. It is especially suitable for situations where there are frequent changes in wind direction.

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The height and rotor diameter are critical to the yield for a wind turbine. Since it is precisely those factors that collide with legal and practical limits in private installations, the efficiency often proves to be insufficient.

A test set-up with ten wind turbines in Zeeland, more than ten years ago, also learned this, the results of which Low Tech Magazine analyzed in detail at the time.

The smallest device achieved an efficiency of just 73 kilowatt hours (kWh) per year, while the best-performing wind turbine generated 2,691 kWh. By way of comparison: the power consumption of an average family averages 3,500 kWh per year.

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The energy yield was therefore disappointing for the smaller types. Several of the windmills tested at the time are also no longer available on the market.

The spherical Energy Ball V100, which is still for sale for a target price of around 3,000 euros, can theoretically yield up to 525 kWh per year, according to the supplier. Although the average wind speed would have to be 7 meters per second.

At an average wind speed of 4 meters per second – the lowest value we find – the efficiency drops to 100 kWh. Only data from the RMI shows that the wind in our country has blew at an average of 3.5 meters per second over the past twenty years.

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For the devices with the highest efficiency, the costs rose to 18,500 euros at the time. If we compare this with the cost price of approximately 6,000 euros for an average solar panel installation, the cost-benefit analysis is quickly made. “The yield from private wind turbines is usually deplorable,” confirms Professor Lieven Vandevelde of Power-Link.

The Flemish information center for agriculture and horticulture (VILT) reported last year about the strong advance of farm windmills in Flanders. These are medium-sized installations with a theoretical power production of 30,000 kWh. After all, farms generally have more space and fewer restrictions.

“The picture looks more interesting for agricultural companies and SMEs with somewhat higher consumption, especially when you combine a good wind turbine in a good location with PV systems and possibly also (battery) storage. This is not only beneficial for the electricity bill, but also for relieving the load on the distribution network,” concludes Professor Vandevelde.

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