Why wind power is better than solar panels

[windgat]

Wind generators are more fun to watch!

[JTECH]

Yes and they don't rely on the sun to shine, so they work at night too provided the wind blows! Also, more power for your money compared to solar (PV).

[Greystoke]

Also, more power for your money compared to solar (PV).

Now THAT remains to be seen !

I've given up of trying to get sustained power out of the wind. It can't be done, unless you go really BIG. At an average windspeed of 3.5m/s (=average in PE) a one meter blade will get you ± 50Watt. Now what use is that?

I wanted 300Watt to power a 100L geyser, but then I needed blades of ± two meter, and that is way too big and too dangerous for my quarter acre plot.

That doesn't mean to say that I regard wind turbines as useless, just that generating electricity this way may not be the most effective method.
Look at the famous Karoo windmill. Still going strong after all those years in service. The difference is the simple application of the rotating power supplied by the mill. No rotors, stators, magnets, coils and rectifiers. Just a rotating shaft.

I am currently investigating the possibility of mounting a fridge compressor to the shaft of a windmill, and thereby producing compressed air (or a vacuum)

I would like to hear members comments on this idea (Sofar I've come up against some interesting problems.)

[windgat]

Yes, at that low wind speed there is not much power available. But remember, at double that speed, there is EIGHT times more power. Calculations based on average speed are only valid for a linear power-speed relationship. For a wind turbine, it is a cubed relationship.

The advantage of generating power is that it can be generated in one place, and used in another, unlike the windpomp.

Mounting a compressor is a great idea - the air can go via hose to be used somewhere else, like electricity. Could use the air for pumping water directly... Trick would be to measure the torque required, and match the blade size, shape and TSR to that. What is the normal RPM for that compressor?

[Greystoke]

The 300Watt with the 2m blades is based on the 3rd power average. The 50 Watt with the 1m blades is a mistake and should have been 70Watt.

A normal fridge compressor operates @ ±2500rpm using 150Watt of power. That way you can work out the required torque. But these compressors operate at any rpm, except that the transferred volume is proportional.