Small Wind Turbines

Tim Hunt looks at manufacturers providing small wind turbines designed for home or community installation.

We selected the brands for this buyers’ guide by cross-referencing the turbine companies noted as suitable for small scale installation by Renewable UK with the 28 wind turbine companies on the Microgeneration Certification Scheme’s website.

A couple of years ago there was some expectation that small roof-mounted wind turbines might sprout across the semis of suburban Britain. B&Q even began to stock them for a time and some politicians, including David Cameron, became keen to be seen with such desirable accessories.

Practical performance issues soon began to dampen early excitement, and clear advice from the Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) – one of the nation’s wind-power specialists – suggests that roof-mounted turbines are not to be recommended (see below).

Nevertheless, if you’ve got a large garden where it is possible to erect a small tower, or you’re a farmer, or you’re a community with a good potential site such as an allotment, everyone is agreed that Britain is an excellent place to generate significant quantities of electricity from wind. The feed-in tariff (FiT) scheme makes such installations potentially very lucrative as well as significant for carbon reduction.

Further good news can be seen from our rating table in that, unlike PV manufacturers, wind turbine companies tend to be small, specialist and ethical. Even the lowest scoring company has an ethiscore of 10 – which would be high in other sectors. More detailed information about the companies appears in the Company Profiles below.

Costs may be higher for wind installations however, and the table below gives some indication of what these might be. Information was sourced primarily from the company’s own websites. It also shows that there is some considerable difference in the size of the smallest turbines offered by each of the companies in this report. The Renewables UK website (www.bwea.com) also has a useful list of small generation equipment with rated power outputs and size. Unlike many solar PV installations, wind turbines will always need prior planning permission.

According to CAT, “Costs of turbine plus tower and installation are typically between £2,500 and £6,000 per rated kW. The total cost of installing a 6 kW wind turbine is typically around £20,000. When calculating installation costs it is important to factor in the tower and any equipment needed to either store energy (batteries) or sell it to the grid (an inverter).”

They go on to note that: “The feed-in tariff (FiT) scheme for renewable electricity generation can make wind power a very attractive option... A 6 kW wind turbine in a good location, could work out to annual payments of around £3,000, guaranteed for 20 years.”

All the products on the table are MCS certified and therefore eligible for FiTs.

Centre for Alternative Technology on Roof Mounted Turbines

“We do not recommend rooftops or buildings as suitable mounting points. Turbines near roof ridges will receive only weak, turbulent winds. Field trials have found that building mounted turbines perform poorly, producing only a small fraction of the energy they could produce under more suitable conditions. In addition, turbines can resonate in the wind and produce vibrations inside the building. The forces acting on the turbine in high winds can damage the structure of the building.”

Further information

...on key issues like gauging wind speeds at your site is available from:
Centre for Alternative Technology
Renewable UK

Company Profiles

All the companies on the table specialise in wind turbines and don’t manufacture other products. Therefore they all receive a company ethos mark for only producing environment alternatives. Fortis, Gaia-wind, Nheolis, Eclectic, Quietrevolution and SEaB do not score negative marks in either the supply chain category or environmental reporting. This is because all manufacture their products in the EU which Ethical Consumer counts as an “effective if not explicit policy addressing workers’ rights issues” as working conditions are generally more effectively regulated in EU countries than some other parts of the world. In addition, all have a turnover of less than £5million and produce environmental alternatives, hence they are exempt from the environmental reporting category.

Ampair, Bergy, Endurance and Proven all score worst in supply chain policy. In the case of the first three this was because they did not respond to our questionnaire and no information could be found on their website on this subject. It should be noted that Bergy also has manufacturing facilities in China. Proven has sales of around £14m per year yet do not have either a supply chain policy or environmental report and so score badly in both categories.

Quietrevolution, Ampair and Proven all have investment from venture capitalists which has affected their ratings. Proven are 50% owned by Low Carbon Accelerator who are in turn are 45% owned by the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS). They therefore pick up marks for the actions of RBS including a boycott call for investing in tar sands projects, operations in 12 oppressive regimes and five tax havens, as well as numerous other investments in environmentally damaging projects. Quietrevolution is part owned by RWE AG, an energy company that operates across Europe. The company is active in coal, gas and nuclear energy generation and so Quiterevolution picks up negative environmental marks associated with these activities. Ampair is 20% owned by Sigma Capital but does not pick up negative marks from this relationship.

Practical Issues

Avoiding the cowboys

Although our buyers’ guides to solar PV and small wind turbines will help you choose products, you can’t buy them and install them yourself and still qualify for the all-important feed-in tariff payments. To qualify they must be installed by someone approved by the government’s Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS).

Getting MCS certified is not a formality and requires annual audit visits. Companies must be able to create written installation plans and demonstrate knowledge of key issues such as roof loading, water ingress and electrical connection. You can go to the MCS website and search for a list of certified installers for a particular technology or a particular geographical area or both.

The Centre for Alternative Technology advises getting quotes from more than one installer and looking for feedback about individual installers (either online or by word-of-mouth). Looking at how long a company has been installing microgeneration would also help identify those with a long-term commitment to the technology.

Installing a particular product

In many cases, installers work with one or two manufacturers which they will ‘recommend’. Obviously at Ethical Consumer we think it is important to keep up the pressure for a wider commitment to social and environmental issues in the industry.

Many MCS installers will ultimately agree to installing any MCS certified product if it means losing the contract if they don’t. And if they don’t want to, there is now sufficient competition for it to be relatively easy to find someone who will.

More information and further reading

Centre for Alternative Technology
Probably know more about this sector than anyone else. They have an excellent website, downloadable factsheets, booklists for further reading and even run 1 - 3 day courses on various renewable energy systems.

The Energy Saving Trust
A government website with lots of information on FiTs and practical tools to get you started.

Microgeneration Certification Scheme
With comprehensive lists of certified products and installers.

Renewable UK
The new name for the British Wind Energy Association – with lots of technical data on products and performance for turbine enthusiasts.