Small wind turbines ride out recent Atlantic storms

Evance R9000 turbine performs perfectly despite peak gusts of 138mph - confirms small wind's ability to deliver in the most extreme conditions

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Evance R9000 on Eday Orkney - Cockram - Dec 2011_sml

Evance's R9000 small wind turbine performed perfectly last week on Eday - one of Orkney's Northern Isles - despite peak gusts of over 130mph

December 2011: The violent Atlantic storm of mid-December 2011 brought extremely high winds to the West and North of Scotland, with the Met Office recording maximum wind gusts of 165mph on Cairngorm Summit and 145mph at Aonach Mor.* The Met Office issued its strongest warning – a red alert – for winds in Scotland, and people were warned to stay indoors, schools were forced to close and flights were canceled.

For owners of Evance R9000 small wind turbines, however, Scotland's extreme wind speeds didn't present any challenges. The Evance R9000 turbine is designed to keep running in the highest winds, and features an innovative Reactive Pitch? mechanism that automatically pitches the turbine's blades so it can regulate energy capture and blade speed.

Unlike some of the huge turbines that had to have their blades feathered and one which even caught fire the Evance R9000 small wind turbines continued working and producing energy. Proof, if any would be needed, that small wind turbines are in many cases, if not all, better than the huge ones. Thus I say it once again: “Every roof a power station”.

Evance has over 50 of its R9000 turbines installed in the Orkney Islands. All continued to perform well during the storm, confirming the applicability of small wind turbines even in these most extreme conditions.

One Evance turbine owner, Adam Cockram, lives on Eday – one of Orkney's Northern Isles – where peak gusts of over 130mph (58 meters per second) were recorded.

According to Adam: “On Thursday night and Friday morning last week the wind gusted at up to 138mph. I did wonder whether our Evance turbine would keep going, and I'm glad to say that there were no problems at all!”

“Like many in Orkney we experienced several mains power failures. Each time the turbine started back up with no problems at all,” continued Adam. “I'm certainly impressed by the quality of both the Evance turbine and the installation carried out by Orkney Micro Renewables. It's certainly been tested here on Eday!”

Adam Cockram's Evance R9000 turbine was commissioned in August 2011, and in five months has already produced 7,343kWh of electricity.

Evance Wind Turbines, a world leading manufacturer of small wind turbines, is dedicated to helping customers capture and use wind power to reduce both energy bills and carbon footprint. Evance has a global footprint of over 800 installations helping farmers, schools, businesses and home owners to become green energy producers.

Evance's 5kW R9000 wind turbine is fully MCS certified and eligible for the UK's Feed-in Tariff scheme.

As a leading manufacturer of small wind turbines Evance delivers efficient and reliable solutions designed to produce maximum energy yield. www.evancewind.comwww.evancewind.com

© 2011

Disclosure & Disclaimer Statement: The GREEN (LIVING) REVIEW received no compensation for any component of this article.

This article is for your information only and the GREEN (LIVING) REVIEW does not (necessarily) approve, endorse or recommend the product, service or company mentioned.