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A good tower will provide stable support so your wind turbine can do its thing

A well constructed tower or sturdy pole is necessary to lift your wind turbine up where a steady stream of air can drive its blades.

Once common place, windmills have become iconic artifacts in rural America. Their flimsy masts lifting their spinning creaky fans into the wind, lonely on the skyline they work away drawing water from the ground.

Now we generate electricity with the wind and use some of it to power huge pumps to lift the same water out of the ground. All kinds of structures rise up across the land.

Water tanks, silos, grain elevators, and thousands of miles of towers carrying power lines. And atop many of these; communications antennas, relays, cell networks, and wind turbines, small ones and large ones sit as quiet sentinels.

Most are set back in rural areas where little attention is paid. They simply disappear, becoming part of the landscape. Meanwhile a blossoming industry provides more and more home power generating systems.

This type is going up in surprising numbers. And where the occasional large turbines stood, huge commercial wind farm operations capable of generating many mega-megawatts dot the country side.

SOME PIPE-N-REBAR

The common denominator is that all need some kind of structure to support the weight while reaching for a stable wind source. Here's a pdf of simple DIY fabrication plans, some pipe and rebar. Obviously, towers need to reach the heights in order to take advantage of increased wind speeds.

Don’t forget, like any edifice this structure is practically irreversible when placed on a concrete slab, basically it's permanent, so you really don't want to have to move it. Therefore, when it’s time to site your system, bear your neighbors in mind, remember, they have to live with your jewel too.

Ah yes, hoisting it onto its pad – you do have a site don't you? Complete Siting Information.

Basically, there's two methods for lifting your tower into place:

  1. A PLATOON - a whole glob of friends, hopefully one of them has a four wheel drive pickup.
  2. A COMPANY - some one who does it for a living. Just make sure they have a crane.
You’ve wisdom will prevail.

Sooo, whether

A COMPANY or a PLATOON,

you’ll still likely need as much help as you can get. Platoons work out, but a Company is better. In either case, I would still suggest you con as much help as you talk into doing heavy work.

Remember, the turbine and blades must also be assembled onto the structure prior to the lift, so the added weight is a factor. In fact the taller it is, the greater the fulcrum and the more tedious the lift will be.

GUY WIRES

No, guy isn't a singer, but a series of wires. And they need to be attached and ready to tighten, just as soon as it's set in place. So you’ll need four people to tighten turnbuckles - better enlist a BATTALION. Oh, by the way, Guy Wires do sing in a strong wind.

UP UP AND AWAY

The procedure is well documented in various web sites, but the process is actually quite simple. Great care must be exercised with foundations and guy wiring in order that the structure will remain where you put it.

If you don’t fabricate you own tower, you’ll likely purchase one from one of the many sources. So once it’s decided to build or purchase, consult the link list of DIY sites and commercial sources and manufactures I’ve listed.

This section offers good resource sites. Some offer materials kits, others excellent information. For example, A clearing house of wind energy information.

This site provides excellent information small wind projects, cost, towers, remote system equipment, a DIY utility company.

Here’s a United Kingdom site that’s one of the best I seen anywhere Take some time and browse through it.

Check out the Alternative Energy Store, they have free educational information on renewable energy systems for your home and great prices on solar panels and wind turbines for your home.

Don’t forget to document your story, so other can benefit from you experience.


Links:
A tower is essential if you want wind



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