THE WIND POWER BOOK

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The methods of energy storage are legion, but only a few are practical. If wind is being used to pump water, your energy storage might be a familiar old redwood water tank. Electrical storage has traditionally taken the form of batteries ...still the most reasonable means of storage in many installations. Cogeneration allows you to send wind-generated electricity out to utility lines (running the meter backward) when you don't need it all. In effect, old Edison becomes the energy storage for the wind system.

There are a number of exotic ways one might choose to store excess wind energy. You might dynamite an enormous mine under your house and pump it up with air from a wind-powered compressor. This compressed air can then power a small generator, sized for your loads, as well as provide aeration for the tropical fish tank. If you own enough land, you can bulldoze a large lake and pump water up to it with wind power. A small hydroelectric turbine will produce electricity as you need it. In fact, you might sink two telephone poles out in the yard and use a wind-powered motor to power a hoist, lifting a '56 Oldsmobile up to 100 feet. As it descends, the motor that lifted it becomes a generator. Such a mechanism could provide you with 500 watts of electricity for about 15 minutes ... maybe enough to burn the toast! There are as many possibilities for energy storage as there are crackpot inventors around, and some of these possibilities are just as crazy.

Some systems provide energy storage as an inherent part of the design. The wind furnace, where wind power is being used exclusively for heat production, is a good example. Heat storage is energy storage: You may store energy by heating water, rocks, or a large building with the excess heat. But probably you'll be heating with wind power when you need heat the most. Wind chill can draw heat from a house much more quickly than heat loss occurs under no-wind conditions. So little, if any, storage would be necessary.

But for most applications, some energy storage is mandatory.

Wind system design is a process of balancing energy needs against wind energy availability. Besides picking a good site and buying or building the right wind machine, you have to select a suitable storage system, plan all wiring or plumbing, build a tower, support it with guy wires, and get building permits and neighbor approval. This design process can be conveniently summarized in the accompanying flow chart. To follow this chart, you start where it seems appropriate and follow the arrows, completing the task in each box before proceeding to the next. The remainder of The Wind Power Book is organized to help you use this flowchart in your design process. Whether you intend to design and build the entire system or just to assemble it from factory-built parts, a systematic approach will help you achieve a windpower system worthy of your efforts.

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