Red Hill General Store
1-800-251-8824
Red Hill Shopping

Red Hill Energy Wind TurbineRED HILL WIND TURBINE ENERGY

RED HILL WIND TURBINE
Current Conditions Red Hill Energy Cam
Use Ctrl + to zoom in, Crtl - to zoom out
Spacer Line
Your weather just got better.

Lifted to the sky in summer 2010 the Red Hill Breezy 5.5 is the first large scale wind turbine built by Red Hill General Store.

This page contains the history and up to date information of the Red Hill Breezy 5.5 wind turbine. Pictures begin with the construction, placement, and liftoff of the wind turbine.


“The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind, The answer is blowin' in the wind”
- Bob Dylan

WHAT IS WIND ENERGY?
Wind power is a truly clean energy source that can be relied on for the long-term future. A wind turbine creates reliable, cost-effective, pollution free energy. It is affordable, clean and sustainable. One wind turbine like ours can be sufficient to generate energy for a household. A few larger ones would power all the homes in our community.

WHERE CAN WE BUILD TURBINES?

Wind Turbine can be installed almost anywhere. Getting a wind turbine depends entirely on the amount of wind generated in your area. The first thing you need to do is to find out the average speed in your area. The average wind speed is typically measured on a scale from 1-5 and needs to be a 3 or above to make installing a wind turbine worthwhile. Ideal locations for wind Turbine are in the country, on farms, or on the coast: basically anywhere away from built-up areas. The more buildings around the wind turbine, the less wind there is. For every increase in windspeed there is a 3times increase on energy output - so windturbines must be built where the wind blows best!

HOW MUCH POWER CAN WE GET FROM THE WIND? That's entirely dependent on the swept area of the blades and the detailed characteristics of the turbine. Nevertheless, It begins with understanding the predictable power in the wind itself.

IMPORTANT ECONOMICS AND TURBINE EFFICIENCY
Power is generated by wind speeds sufficient to run a turbine. The economic cost competitiveness accounts for wind's intermittence - with capacity factors at about 30% (the same as traditional coal plant efficiency) - All wind calculations for power output account for the fact the wind dosen't blow equally throughout the seasons. Thus, assuming real power production potential. Newer wind generation is cost-competative with conventional sources shown in Chart 2 (Randolph, 2008, p. 463).

Wind Chart


Wind turbines have no fuel cost and relatively low operating costs allowing confident prediction of energy costs years into the future (Rynne et al. 2011).

SUBSIDIES
Un-level Playing Field: Energy incentives for oil and gas are permanent and have been in place since the 1920s. U.S. subsidies for oil, natural gas and coal totaled over $500 billion from 1950 to 2006. Wind energy’s primary incentive, the Production Tax Credit (PTC), has been allowed to expire multiple times, including in 1999, 2001 and 2003 and has been consistently reinstated for only one or two year terms.




Pictorial History of the Red Hill Breezy 5.5 Wind Turbine
(Slideshows will open in new window)
Preparation Day: Construction and test liftoff
Picture 2
Spacer Line
The Grand Liftoff!

Picture 3

Lantz, E., Flowers, L., Rynne, S., & Heller, E. (2011). Planning for Wind Energy. American Planning Association.

Randolph, J. (2008). Energy for Sustainability . Washington DC: Island Press.