I'm starting to think about diversifying my energy prodution. I have a solar panel array (5kWp) on the roof for a year now. I see that adding more panels does not make much sense as the production in summer as is is already hard to consume it all, and in winter the production is rather symbolic while consumption is through the roof.
So I thought of looking into wind turbines. There is plenty of wind the whole year where I live. But, rather then buying a big 5kW turbine which is quite expensive on its own (plus a pole and all the other stuff) I thought, how about using multiple small turbines (up to 1kW) connected together, similar to how solar panels are. Either into one inverter or using microinverters. Does anyone have any interesting links to follow or some experience in similar setups?
Allegedly more panels is cheaper than small scale wind. It just does not make a lot of sense to have small scale wind due to scaling and very low spread leading to immense prices. (If bought off the shelf)
You could add solarthermal units in order to assist your heating this may be viable but is very specific to your home. There also might be wierd regulations when it comes to wind power depending on where you life.
Solarthermal is something I thought about but seeing how little is produced on the roof now I wonder how much impact it will have. I know the efficiency of solar collectors is about 80% while solar panels are 20-30%, but installation of solar collectors adds more complexity with plumbing and in summer you again have situation where you have nowhere to spend the heat on and need to either close the system (drain it) or cover the collector. Plus it's not that cheap. It's mainly reason why we went for solar panels as although solar panels require more space to provide eqiuvalent power, the low maintenance and the fact the energy can be spent on more stuff then just heating water. So I'm looking at diversifying the energy source. Thats why looking into wind.