What would a civil engineer have to do with designing a small wind turbine?

I could see a tower requiring a permit if it goes above some height, but even then it's not likely to need an engineering sign-off unless it goes especially high.

Many questions.

A couple:

* 1m² = 1x2m? 4m² = 2x4m? etc. I'm confused by this.

* Why 25 m² (5x10 m) = 20.8kW, but 100 m² (10x20 m) = 62.4kW? 4x the size in m², but only ~3x the power? Shouldn't it be 83.2kW, not 62.4kW? It doesn't make sense efficiency would drop....

* You're speccing this as having a 25 year life (with $50/yr maintenance). I'm feeling a bit doubtful that zip-tied tarps under UV and dynamic load are going to last that long, to be honest. The tracking system also seems extremely susceptible to dirt etc.

* This thing looks pretty janky. I'm also not convinced a good 20-year storm wouldn't completely wreck it. Proper wind turbines have the ability to weather-vane into the wind, lock the rotor, etc etc. Again, in it's current incarnation, I'm doubtful it would survive.

* Your "guaranteed Cp of .32" seems... optimistic. Given it looks like you've built actual units, what are your real-world results vs the CFD numbers?

The price does seem steep for something so simple it could be modelled with straws in three minutes, but I don't really understand the rest of the negativity.

Don't we want innovation in renewables? Shouldn't we be encouraging this kind of thing, trying out different designs to the traditional windmills and trying to make something easy to build, scale, install and operate?

Consumer solar has been a game changer, so doing the same for wind would be a huge innovation. But the reasons everyone doesn't already have wind generators on their roof is it's a much harder problem to solve. Not least of which is wind speeds are significantly lower closer to the ground. So I expect their 1kw output has a very narrow "optimal conditions" window. This might work if you live in a desert? Though given enough time with climate change...

I’ve been looking for a wind turbine you could deploy on the roof. I’ve got 15 kW of inverter capacity available.

So far my conclusion has been that it’s not yet time for this.

For a single unit project or workshop thing to make, just because, sure... Maybe? But for 4900 euros? What are they smoking? I'm rather skeptical of the rendering shot of dozens of these in a bare field.

The mechanical cost and complexity and maintenance issues will surely be more costly and hassle prone over a 5-10 year time span than buying three 400W PV panels (1200W STC rating) and mounting them using some similar hack job DIY ballasted ground mount.

The rotating/moving thing at ground level also seems like a good way to mangle pets, wildlife and small children.

If you really want a "1kW" wind turbine? There's a reasonable number of different chinese domestic manufacturing sources for vertical axis turbines that are nominally rated at 1kW in a brisk wind. And you can mount them on a thick pole 3 meters off the ground so that nobody can stick their arm into it.

Given all the flat surfaces on this, I wonder how much more difficult it would be to turn the flat surfaces from canvas into solar panels.

There are exceptionaly well understood minimum requirements needed to build wing turbines and other primary power equipment, the thing shown quite clearly meets none of them, and in fact appears to be built like a folding lawn chair, or perhaps an umbrella, but in any case, not the sort of thing you leave to the mercy of the wind.

1 kW, 4,900€ for what looks like a mediocre high school science fair project?

You could build something as good with duct tape and an old washing machine for the cost of picking it up for free when the owner is trying to get rid of it without paying to have it picked up.

The Vevor 1 kW wind mill that looks like a windmill instead of TechCrunch×MadMax is $300.

Looks like AI slop marketing, feels like a scam.

Their "technical validation (CFD)" document looks like AI slop...

These people are charging for the f'ing IP! They won't let you just use the design, they want to profit off of you paying them royalties.

Wait 1kW is actually €5k? Lol they have the audacity to describe it as low cost.

Also if you have a real project (which this seems to be), don't get AI to slop out your website. Terrible look.

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