Wind Turbine Towers on Your Property

Published on Wed, 05/26/2010 - 8:27am

There are a number of questions you should ask yourself prior to siting a Wind Turbine Tower on your property.

1.Do you have enough wind to economically support a Wind Turbine?
2.Does the topographic layout of your property, including building and structures on site, provide a site for a Wind Turbine/ Tower?
3.What type of Wind Turbine best compliments your site conditions?
4.Do you understand the specific zoning regulations, related to Wind Turbine Towers, which are in place for your parcel of land? Are there any FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) regulations which need to be addressed?
 
Towers and turbines are tailored to individual sites. Depending on the size (energy output) of a particular turbine, you have a choice to either place the turbine on a “free standing” lattice or structural steel designed tower or a “guyed steel pipe or steel lattice designed tower”.
 
Free standing towers - require a smaller footprint of property, due to the lack of need for guy wires. However, they are normally more expensive due to the requirements of the foundation and the structural steel tower composition.
 
Guyed towers - require more property as the height of the tower increases.
Approximate Guy wire layout dimensions:
 
Tower Height | Guy Radius | Diagonal Distance | Ginpole Anchor Distance
30 ft.                     19ft.                   26.8ft.                             N.A.
104 ft.                   60ft.                   84.6ft.                             29ft.
 
Generally speaking a lattice or other structural steel type tower designs may allow climbing access to the generator and blade assemblies of the turbine for maintenance. Some small turbines(20 KW or smaller) are mounted on 20 foot structural steel towers; this height of tower provides for easier maintenance, by allowing access with a ladder or a bucket truck.
 
Tower Siting
Guidelines suggest that many small turbines should be placed on a tower that projects at least 30 feet above any other structure (buildings, trees, silos, …etc), within a 300 foot radius of the tower. This type of layout will help reduce/eliminate any turbulences which may adversely affect the wind turbine performance. Some other turbine manufacturers suggest that their turbines can be mounted directly on top of structures (buildings, silos, digesters…etc) or mounted on shorter towers, as discussed above, without jeopardizing the performance of the turbine.
 
FAA requires that any tower structure exceeding a height of 200 feet require navigational markings and/or lighting. Normally, small wind turbines are not mounted at heights which require concern of FAA regulations.
 
Recommendations
As you consider whether a Wind turbine/tower is appropriate for your needs, please contact a professional to help you assess the pros and cons of various wind turbine/towers available.  The professional will assist you by evaluating your site for existing wind conditions and reviewing your site topography/size to determine the available wind turbine/tower systems which will best meet your needs.  Please contact Tim Marko, PE, Short Elliott Hendrickson, Inc.  (SEH Inc.) with any Wind Turbine/Tower siting questions you may have.  1-800-472-5881, extension 6240.
 

 

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