We started the year with the distribution agreement with Iskra to market the Iskra AT5-1 5kW turbine across England and quite rapidly the level of enquiries grew from an initial 50 per month, to over 400 per month by the end of year. That level of growth not surprisingly imposed some strain on our infrastructure, but we have managed to deal with over 4,000 enquiries and hopefully the vast majority have been dealt with satisfactorily. Over the year Segen has expanded its operation and now employs 10 staff dedicated to the sales and installation of small wind turbines across England and Wales.

March saw the end of funds available from the old Clear-Skies program, and a delay before the launch of the replacement Low Carbon Buildings Program (LCBP), but we managed to see our way through that period and Segen now has over 50 people with grants provided by the LCBP for Segen supplied wind turbines and Segen is one of only a handful of fully accredited small wind turbine installers in the UK.

Later in the year we added to our range, with both the smaller Whisper 500 and the larger Westwind 20, enabling us to offer solutions for a much wider range of applications.

Shown below are just some of the installations we have completed this year.

Another New Year, Another New Product from Segen

Segen can now offer a 20kW from the long established Australian manufacturer, Westwind. The Westwind business was purchased by Northern Ireland based J. A. Graham Ltd in November and the production facility is now in the process of being moved to Northern Ireland.

The Westwind 20 is a well tried and tested product with many installations world wide, and Segen is very pleased to be working with J. A. Graham to promote the product in the UK.

The Westwind 20 is ideally suited to the more power hungry needs of farms, schools, council premises and commercial properties, generating approximately 30MWh on an average site, and more in windier locations.

The Westwind 20 is supplied on an 18m free standing tower, thereby maximising the energy available from this larger machine and connects to a three phase supply. It is fully accredited under the Low Carbon Buildings Program, enabling the full £5,000 grant to be claimed for domestic installations, and up to 40% for community schemes.

Segen is now taking enquiries for the Westwind 20 with an expected shipment date from the new factory in Northern Ireland in early Summer 2007.

Technology - Grid Connection

Some of the most common technical questions we get here at Segen are about how the turbines that we sell connect to the electricity supply, so we thought a bit of information on that would be useful.

All the turbines which Segen sell today generate three phase "wild" Alternating Current (AC). It is called wild, because both the voltage and the frequency vary depending upon the speed at which the turbine is rotating, which in turn varies with the wind speed. Typically the voltage varies from 200-400VAC and the frequency depends upon the type of turbine, but will be between 100 and 500Hz. This however cannot be connected directly to the grid, as only devices which produce 240VAC at 50Hz may be used.

In order to convert therefore this "wild" AC into something useful, two devices are used:

1. A rectifier converts the three phase AC from the turbine into Direct Current (DC).
2. An inverter is then used to convert the DC into a constant voltage and frequency AC, at 240VAC and 50Hz, suitable for connecting to the grid.

The inverter also provides essential safety features to control the power output from the turbine, and to automatically switch off the current if the grid connection should fail. This means that should the grid connection fail, the inverters will switch off their output and there is therefore no danger to any maintenance engineers fixing the fault.

Segen use inverters from two of the major inverters manufactures in world.

SMA are the biggest supplier for inverters to the PV and small wind markets, and offer a complete range of small wind inverters from 700W to 6kW. Segen supplies 2 X SMA 2.5kW inverters for the Iskra AT5-1 and 3 X SMA 6kW inverters with the Westwind 20.

Magnetek are a long established power electronics manufacturer, who manufacture a range of transformerless inverters, which are much lighter and slightly more efficient than the more traditional SMA designs. Segen supplies the Magnetek 3.6kW for use with the Southwest Windpower Whisper 500 turbine.

Each inverter needs to be specially programmed to match the power characteristics of the wind turbine, and therefore its important to only use an approved inverter with the turbine.

Segen will also supply a certified Renewable Obligation Certificate (ROC) meter that measures and records the total amount of energy that the turbine has generated, so that you, or your electricity supply, can claim the value of the ROCs for each MWh which your turbine generates.

In addition there will be a number of isolator switches and fuses to protect the turbine and the mains electricity supply in the event of a system failure and to enable the power supply to be disconnected for maintenance purposes.

A Personal View

We asked some of our recent customers to write some personal notes on why they got a wind turbine from Segen, and this is the second in the series from Wendy Charles-Warner in Denbighshire, Wales, in her own words.

The planning application was very straight forward as renewable energy production is positively encouraged. The installation process was dealt with in a friendly and efficient manner leaving minimum mess despite the difficult terrain. Then came the exciting day.

We were able to switch on the turbine a week ahead of schedule and wow was it impressive! The dogs got walked to the field repeatedly so that we could all admire the incredible speed of the machine (not that their comments went beyond "woof" of course) . The output was instant and really fast with power production recording before my eyes. The best bit though was putting on the washing machine and dishwasher together with other items and still being able to export spare power to the grid.

Other Wind Turbine Installations

Segen has installed many small wind turbines across England and Wales, and you can see a map showing these installations on our web site at:
http://www.segen.co.uk/eng/wind/installations.htm

Wendy's Turbine

Wendy's turbine is the Iskra AT5-1 5kW mounted on a 12m guyed tower.

At Wendy's site the expected annual mean wind speed (AMWS) is 5.4m/s and Wendy's turbine is expected to generate approximately 10MWh of electricity per annum.

Home domestic lighting is a major source of CO2 emissions, and yet it is one of the easiest and most cost effective to reduce.

One of the problems with energy savings bulbs in the past has been their physical size, and lack of attractive light fittings. That is changing however, and there is now an ever increasing range of sizes and shapes of energy saving bulbs and fitting.

There are many retailers selling these products, and a good selection can be found at Amazon.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_ss_kh/026-4221456-5054066?url=search-alias%3Dkitchen&field-keywords=energy+savings

Upcoming Events

Segen is an active supporter of local renewable energy events across the country and will be supporting and exhibiting at the following locations:

• 20th January 2007 Customer Open Day in Loughborough, Notts. One of the earliest customers for an Iskra AT5-1 is hosting an open day.
• 10th February 2007 Customer Open Day in Todmorden, Lancs.  One of our recent customers has offered to open their gates to allow visitors to see their Iskra AT5-1 Turbine fully operational.
• 27th March 2007 Segen will be exhibiting at the Envirenergy North West exhibition.  Join us at Stand 49.

Please contact us if you wish to attend any of these events.
 

Can I mount my turbine on the roof of one of my buildings?

This is probably the most asked question of any, and the one to which there is the least agreement in the entire worldwide small wind industry as to the correct answer.

Mike Bergey, head of the world’s largest small turbine manufacturer has been quoted as saying he;

"wishes people would stop asking us about mounting turbines on buildings."

Paul Gipe, one of America's most respected small wind experts says;

"Mounting wind turbines--of any kind--on a building is a very bad idea. I've yet to see an application where this has worked or will likely work."

What is however clear, and accepted by (nearly) everyone is that, if you are going to mount a turbine on a roof then you have to consider some issues, which are more prevalent than with a mast mounted rural one;

1. There will be increased turbulence and this will result in higher stresses on the turbine and lower energy capture for any given wind speed.
2. There will be more people living and working near the turbine so increased margins of safety need to be applied, and lower noise generated.
3. Extra measures may need to be taken to limit the transmission of vibrations into the structure of the building.
4. The average wind speed in a town or city environment may be a lot less than the national wind speed database indicates.

You can read more about the issues with roof mounting on our FAQ page on the topic: http://www.segen.co.uk/eng/wind/faq/faq4.htm

Segen launches grant service for School and Community organisations seeking to install clean energy systems.

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