Adding wind power to an existing on-grid solar system

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SolarWindBoy
SolarWindBoy Registered Users Posts: 6 ✭✭
in Wind Power Generation #1

I have a 25kWp on grid solar system currently and am looking to add 4 1000W wind turbines to my system to allow generation of power when the sun isn’t shining.

The current solar array has a Vmax of 900V and Imax of 30A and I am using a Growatt MID 25KTL3-X inverter.

Due to the geography of the installation location, my inverter is located around 500m from my solar array. This large distance meant a high cable cost to reduce the impact of power loss.

I was wanting to see if anyone had any ideas about combining the wind power into the same cable as the solar power.

All the wind controllers I have seen seem to be for charging batteries so wouldn’t be appropriate for connecting to the solar cable.

Any help you can offer would be greatly appreciated! Thank you


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  • BB.
    BB. Super Moderators, Administrators Posts: 33,448 admin
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    Welcome to the forum SWB,

    The typical solution is to have Grid Tied Capable Wind Turbines (using a GT Inverter)... Connect that to the AC output of a comparable AC inverter (AC inverters that can take AC energy from the AC "output" and charge the battery bank). The "Micro Grid" concept.

    Can you find a compatible GT Inverter for wind (like the old SMA Windy Boy family) that can connect to a "compatible" AC Battery hybrid inverter (such as the SMA Sunny Island family).

    The idea of inverters that can accept AC power to charge the battery bank. Many of those types can vary the output line frequency (50 Hz +/- 1 Hz or so) can the GT inverters will throttle the output energy based on "how far" from 50 Hz the inverter is off frequency.

    There are other methods such as monitoring battery bank voltage and using a "dump controller" connected to a heater to "burn off" excess charging energy. Or a second method was to monitor battery bank voltage and an AC relay to cut AC power from the Wind GT Inverter when the battery bank is full...

    Lots of details, and a changing environment (GT Wind turbines "going away", made in China, China Mfg. going away?).

    Another would be to have your 4x turbines charging a battery bank, and then using an AC inverter to send power to a "battery charger" for the solar site... Kind of messy (extra battery bank, extra battery charger, etc.).

    I am not a big fan of small wind... Few of the turbines seem to be reliable and most only harvest "useful energy" if you are in a "miserably" windy location (more than 12 MPH winds). Also the costs of mounting turbines on 10+ Meter towers (concrete, crane, tilt towers, etc.).

    Have you researched Wind turbines? Found a real turbine installation site with 1 year minimum of harvest information in similar conditions?

    Even "the best" (most efficient) turbines have had maintenance issues, highly variable energy (unpredictable) energy harvest. Many have their electronics in the nacelle (need crane/tilt to access).

    You are in Southern England (?) and hours of sun is not great... But many wind installations (in UK, around the world) really never did harvest a "usable" amount of energy over time.

    A 15 year old thread--But not sure anything regarding wind has really improved. :

    https://forum.solar-electric.com/discussion/3638/small-windpower-a-scam-survey-says-so/p1

    -Bill
    Near San Francisco California: 3.5kWatt Grid Tied Solar power system+small backup genset
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