 | Renewable Energy Our farm is to far from the national grid to be connected, so we have to generate our own electricity. Rising fuel prices combined with our environmental concerns encouraged us to install a Wind Turbine and Solar Panels.
The British made Wind Turbine is a Future Energy FE1024, which has a 24-volt, 1Kw permanent magnet alternator.
I fabricated the tower and base in the farm workshop and it consists of a cross-made of 12" RSJ with a 6 metre tilt up tower guyed to the steel cross. Being mobile this will allow me to move the turbine when I need to harvest hay off the field. Armoured cable is used to connect the turbine to the 1200 amp/hour storage battery pack.
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Solar Panels 10 BP Solar BP5170S monocrystalline PV modules are fixed to a wooden frame bolted to steel set in concrete.
The predicted annual generation is 1360kwh and the panels supplied all our electricity during the months of July and August but the darker days of autumn dropped the output. This could be improved if we had installed a tracker frame, which moves around during the daytime following the sun.
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Each panel is rated 170 watts giving an overall 1.7 Kw at 24 volts.
An Outback MX-60 Charge Controller is used to protect the batteries from overcharging.
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 | Battery Storage The Direct current (dc) electricity is stored in12 Chloride Powersafe VH57 batteries which make up a bank of 1700 amp hours @ 24volt. These batteries weigh 126 kg each and were bought second-hand after being used in a telecommunications station for only 5 years.
The batteries store enough electricity to supply our modest consumption for 3-4 days.
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Trace Inverter The 24 volt dc electricity is fed to a Trace SW3024/E Sine Wave 3 Kw supplies the house with 240 volt a/c electricity.
The inverter also works as a battery charger for prolonged calm/cloudy weather.
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