Small-scale wind turbines: An appraisal

This research seeks to evaluate the economic benefits to be gained by installing a small-scale wind turbine for a customer with a three-phase electrical supply requirement. The evidence for the claims made in this paper is obtained by using actual data obtained from the installed equipment over a three year period. The objective is to accurately appraise the financial investment using real data. There appears to be limited studies conducted into this type of research, possibly because the renewable energy sector is in the infancy stage in the host country, Ireland. There are some wind energy installations with financial appraisal techniques based on modeled data, which may, or may not, be accurate. The study concludes by claiming that the financial benefits of the wind energy turbine installation had disappointing results when compared to predicted benefits based on modeled data.