Urban wind generator or waste of time/effort?

[Bancroft]

I noticed this wind turbine the other day (outlined against the solar panels) on the edge of a new development.

 

Surprised for two reasons:

 

First, will it actually achieve anything meaningful?  It's quite low and surrounded by houses and some high trees to the south west (where prevailing winds come from).

 

How/why has the local planning department agreed to it?  It doesn't seem to fit the criteria required for personal wind turbines, even permitted development rights.

[JohnMo]

9 minutes ago, Bancroft said:

First, will it actually achieve anything meaningful

No, not high enough to mitigate wind disturbance 

 

10 minutes ago, Bancroft said:

How/why has the local planning department agreed to it?  It doesn't seem to fit the criteria required for personal wind turbines, even permitted development rights.

Would they have applied?

[saveasteading]

It appears to be on a pole along with a small solar panel.

It likely powers a street light which illuminates the adjacent footpath.

[SteamyTea]

1 hour ago, saveasteading said:

likely powers a street light which illuminates the adjacent footpath

I would sell them to the council.

Could save them £1000s on each sale. 

Probably where the myths that renewables are expensive, and don't work, comes from.

[saveasteading]

@SteamyTea I'm not grasping your meaning.

 

I noticed in Spain that all new street lights appear to be solar. At first it seemed to be on commercial estate but now on dual carriageways.

The weather helps of course.

Must be much cheaper to install than mains, with no trench or cable.

[SteamyTea]

4 minutes ago, saveasteading said:

I'm not grasping your meaning.

Local Authorities have no idea what things should cost, so selling them a £300 wind turbine made for a boat, a fifty quid PV panel, a small battery system for say £500 and a person to put it all together, should probably be about £1000.

Councils will probably pay 5 to 6 times that amount.

Then, where there is a meeting to fit renewables to council buildings, someone in accounts, will drag out the £5000/kW number and say 'it is too expensive'.

[saveasteading]

12 hours ago, SteamyTea said:

Local Authorities have no idea what things should cost,

It will have been an external consultant, or the developer's designer   but the same will apply.

[Conor]

It's likely powering a device that doesn't have a mains connection - e.g. logger/telemetry system on a utility, LED sign etc etc. Often these units are cheaper than getting a connection to the mains. Also, if there are road opening embargoes, like you would in a new development, there might not be the option to make a connection.

[sgt_woulds]

It's a street lamp.  You can see the lamp above the solar panel (maybe it is self powering at night 🙂)

 

 

[saveasteading]

1 hour ago, sgt_woulds said:

maybe it is self powering at night

Great idea, the lamp charges the solar panel.

[SteamyTea]

1 hour ago, saveasteading said:

Great idea, the lamp charges the solar panel.

Only if the light emits between 24.25 GHz to 71.0 GHz.

 

[Bancroft]

On 01/06/2026 at 16:46, saveasteading said:

It appears to be on a pole along with a small solar panel.

It likely powers a street light which illuminates the adjacent footpath.

 

Interesting, I wonder if the people putting these up have to comply with the same building regs requirements as a home owner would?

 

Or will it be different because it's the Council so normal rules don't apply...

[sgt_woulds]

What building regs requirements would apply to a lampost on a public throughfare?

 

 

[sgt_woulds]

I remember a billion years ago there was a requirement for 5m distance from ground to blade tip (and from any windows) for building mounted units. 

 

Not sure about free standing rules.  This will only be 3-400 watt max turbine. Noise will be zero unless you stand right under it.  

[scottishjohn]

I have been looking at this seriously recently 

 

 the conclusion is unless you can spend 70k  or more on one its a total waste of time 

 

although they say these cheap vertical units they are rated at 5kw /10kw -- that is maximum theoretical output before any losses etc 

 

and you need to be in winds of 25mph + to get close to that  and then the cost of a suitable mounting pole and foundation 

 

most of these small units you will be lucky to  ever get more than 1kw  from them  -and do we believe the life span - I do not--its basically an electric motor  on its back  spinning 24/7   

 

  so  I have  decided better to have some more ground mounted solar panels  up in the high level waste garden If I do anything  --which will face south-separate invertor coupled to my 17.5kw battery stack 

 

as my main array on the roof faces S/w and get little output once you get later in the year because of lower sun angle and little till late morning -- but once the sun gets at them -- i can see  11kw+ 

 

so the idea is to fill in the morning  and as they face south will also carry on all day 

 

 another 5kw of panels --

 

still waiting on costs  to make final decision 

 

but although I have lots of wind   it would never pay back in my life time  with a smaller  wind turbine 

 

so for anyone not in a very windy position  it will never work