The use of photovoltaic (PV) panels is producing electricity at one building. Dr. Ron, a local resident and retired professor of electrical engineering, is currently compiling data, while supplying power for refrigeration and cooling to his home, to determine how feasible this option is for our area.
The use of wind energy at our farm is also being actively researched with the onsite use of a small, electric wind generator, allowing us to collect data for further investigation of larger scale use.
At present we have learned that our actual average wind speeds and average wind speed data for our area are quite different. We’re not sure if our location in the county is unique or if winds have simply increased in recent years. Either way we are experiencing wind speeds higher than the data says we should. This is a good thing for onsite electric generation but maybe not good news about our planet.
The other item that we have learned is that the pairing of solar electric and wind is a good choice and allows for less storage (battery) expense. This is because typically when there is lots of wind it is cloudy and when it is sunny there is not much wind.
