New Zealand has one of the best wind sources in the world and a number of large centralised wind farms have been developed to harness this sustainable resource. Current large wind farms are part of the centralized electricity generation system. New Zealand’s geography is ideally suited to distributed generation (DG) where electricity is generated and consumed at the source. Small wind turbines are ideally suited for DG and can supplement New Zealand’s centralized generation by exporting extra electricity into the grid (grid-connect).

How small wind turbines work?

The blades of the wind turbine, positioned appropriately to capture the wind (top of a secured mastpole, top of a domestic or commercial building) are rotated by the force of the wind which then converts it to electricity that is compatible with the home or business electrical system.

The electricity generated by the small wind turbine can be stored in a ‘battery bank’ if the building is not connected to the grid (SPS). If the home is connected to the network grid and the small wind turbine produces more power than the house or business needs, the extra electricity can, with appropriate agreements in place, be exported into the grid and sold to an electricity retailer.

A number of small wind turbines (also called micro wind turbines) have been developed that are designed to be fixed to a building. However many building locations suffer from turbulent winds from surrounding obstacles which can result in poor energy generation.

New Zealand Wind Turbine Trials

Vector Limited are currently trialing the Swift (Scotland) small wind turbine while Meridian Energy is trialing the Skystream 3.7 (United States) Both wind turbines are specifically designed to be connected to the national power grid network for distributed generation.