I was doing boring yard work today and one of the thoughts that crossed my mind was "Would it be practical to have small wind turbines on top of power polls?" They could be easily wired into the grid. There are also 1000's of power polls.... Would the polls be tall enough? Do small turbines require constant maintainence? Would they eventually pay themselves off? Tell me your thoughts.

james

James,

The short answer is no, it would not be practical to put small turbines on power poles.

There are two main reasons for this:

1. The towers that small turbines are put on are specially designed for that purpose. Power poles are not designed to withstand the vibrations created by a spinning turbine, and there would be danger that they might fail or break.

2. You already thought of this one: the power poles probably aren't tall enough. You need to put a turbine about 30 feet higher than any nearby obstructions, like trees or houses. Most power poles would not be tall enough.

To answer your other questions:

A small turbine is kind of like a car: it needs maintenance from time to time, and will run better and longer if it's properly cared for. Most people do the major maintenance on their small turbines about once a year.

A small turbine can pay itself off, but it depends on a number of things, including: How much wind is at your site? How much did you pay for the turbine and installation? How much are you paying for other electricity? If you borrowed money, what is the interest rate? Did you take advantage of any government assistance?

I've heard of small turbines that have paid for themselves in just a few years, but also of others that never quite did. It's really a matter of your exact situation. The good news is that you can do some homework ahead of time and predict pretty acurately where your project will end up financially.

Marin