Finding wind turbines buying prices

diego
diego Registered Users Posts: 2
Hi everyone, first post here!

First of all, English is not my mother language, so please be indulgent.
I am an engineering student in Belgium and for a university project my group and I have to design an off-grid water pumping system using only wind power. The objective is to pump water from an underground lake, 30m below ground level, using a 3kW pump fed by a wind turbine and some batteries for energy storage. After some research and analysis we chose two 10kW and one 15kW wind turbines (links below). The problem is : it's seems impossible to find the price of wind turbines (and not just those 3) ! Since we have to do an economical analysis of the project, not having the price of the wind turbine is a huge problem!
Is there any way to get the price of wind turbines ? Any website that compares wind turbines based on their prices ?

Once the design is done, we will have to scale it down and test it on the rooftop of the university. Once again, it seems hard to find prices for smaller wind turbines.
Do you have any piece of advice on the kind of wind turbine that would be appropriate for the scaled down test version ?

If you can't help me, any idea of a place/people that could give me the info I need ?

Thanks for your time!

Diego

10 kW vertical axis : http://www.fw4sea.com/en/products-gb/fiches-techniques-gb/80-fiches-techniques-fr/104-f100-10-gb
10 kw horizontal axis : http://www.lely.com/uploads/original/documents/Brochures/Energy/Lely_Aircon_03_EN.pdf
15 kw horizontal axis : http://www.angelwindenergy.com/proven15.html

Comments

  • inetdog
    inetdog Solar Expert Posts: 3,123 ✭✭✭✭
    Re: Finding wind turbines buying prices
    diego wrote: »
    H
    Once the design is done, we will have to scale it down and test it on the rooftop of the university.

    Even starting above the ground, on the rooftop, you will still need a tower (at least 30 feet and preferably 60 feet) to get the turbine out of the turbulence caused by the ground and the building. And that assumes that there are no turbulence producing projections above the roof.

    If you do not get into the free air zone, any tests you make will be much less useful.

    Small turbines do not magically work with small towers. Although is the rotor is small enough the effects of medium scale turbulence are correspondingly smaller.
    SMA SB 3000, old BP panels.
  • diego
    diego Registered Users Posts: 2
    Re: Finding wind turbines buying prices

    Yes, I know that. The scaled down version of the system will obviously be much more limited. But that was not really the question.
    The main difficulty for the moment is to find the prices for wind turbines...

    Diego
  • BB.
    BB. Super Moderators, Administrators Posts: 33,431 admin
    Re: Finding wind turbines buying prices

    Roof top turbines are generally a very bad idea... At the very least, noise from the bearings, blades... To torque causing structural problems from the tower/mounting/guy wires. And, worst case, turbines have been known to shed blades, have yaw bearing failures and drop to the ground (or occupied building roof/surroundings in your case).

    Personally, I am not a fan of wind power--except in very limited cases. Most turbines that are mounted to buildings are just above the roof line and rarely generate much useful power. Turbulence is a huge issue, and Vertical Axis Wind Turbines are not going to generate any more power than a standard Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine.

    Here are some links to various sources about wind. And, in general, if you are looking to go with wind, building your own turbine is probably a better way to go--Most commercial turbines seem to have problems (and difficulty getting spare parts as vendors go out of business):

    Wind Power Links
    www.otherpower.com (good forum for DIY Wind Power)
    Hugh Piggott - Scoraig Wind Electric site for tons of info (from mike90045)
    Scoraig Wind "Recipe Book" for DYI Turbines (From 4/11/2013 post)
    www.greenpowertalk.org (added from "russ"--Like here but more wind/less solar)
    Small windpower a scam ? Survey says SO
    Truth About Skystream & SWWP
    Windmax HY-2000 2kW Wind Turbine (apparently, some vendors don't sell spare parts--just new turbines. However, the owner, Edward has been very happy with its performance from 2010-2012--BB. 5/31/2012)

    For pricing of larger turbines, you might look through the www.alibaba.com site. I have seen that many vendors do list some sort of pricing.

    -Bill
    Near San Francisco California: 3.5kWatt Grid Tied Solar power system+small backup genset
  • animatt
    animatt Solar Expert Posts: 295 ✭✭✭
    Re: Finding wind turbines buying prices

    NOT AN ANSWER TO YOUR QUESTION. Just something to think about.

    No sure why you would use a electrial generating wind turbine to use the electricity to run a pump to finally pump water.

    You are taking mechanical energy turning it into electricity. Then putting atleast some of the electricity in batteries(turning to chemical potential energy). Then taking some of the stored chemical potential and converting to electricity and finally converting it back into to mechanical energy.

    Seems like alot of conversions. AND a lot of losses

    If you wanted to drive it by wind why not pump directly from wind, Mechanical to mechanical. MUCH MORE EFFICIENT and the wind mill should be MUCH cheaper in parts vs the wind turbine.

    Obviously depends on final needs for the water. It could just pump to a holding tank on ground level which would later have a smalled electrical pump pressurize it. Or to an elevated tank. and gravity feed it where it needs to go. You tanks in esseniece become your batteries. (Much longer lasting batteries).


    matthew
  • Deveak
    Deveak Solar Expert Posts: 38 ✭✭
    Re: Finding wind turbines buying prices

    is alibaba any good? What are the chances of getting ripped off by china?
  • inetdog
    inetdog Solar Expert Posts: 3,123 ✭✭✭✭
    Re: Finding wind turbines buying prices
    Deveak wrote: »
    is alibaba any good? What are the chances of getting ripped off by china?

    There is almost no chance of being ripped off by China unless you own valuable intellectual property. If you are just buying things, you will be ripped off by Chinese companies instead. Unless you know a lot about what you are buying and you research the seller thoroughly. Buyer feedback within Alibaba may not be a good enough indicator. It certainly is not for eBay.
    SMA SB 3000, old BP panels.
  • Deveak
    Deveak Solar Expert Posts: 38 ✭✭
    Re: Finding wind turbines buying prices
    inetdog wrote: »
    There is almost no chance of being ripped off by China unless you own valuable intellectual property. If you are just buying things, you will be ripped off by Chinese companies instead. Unless you know a lot about what you are buying and you research the seller thoroughly. Buyer feedback within Alibaba may not be a good enough indicator. It certainly is not for eBay.

    sorry should have double checked my post, meant chinese company. So there is no recourse if i get a box full of sand or something? From what i see its chinese junk that gets rebranded and marked up. Some may be good, most will be put under 100 different names with no difference between them. I work in a retail store. Corporate literally pays people to go to the docks, buy crates of whatever they have and slap a name on it. But it is CHEAP. Thank for the feed back.