Producing your own power

WE can produce our own power for our home, business or farm with wind, solar, hydro or combined heat and power units (CHP). A wind turbine takes the energy from the wind and converts it to electricity. Solar photovoltaic panels use the sun’s rays to make electricity.
Hydro is using the pressure of water from a stream or river to generate power. Combined heat and power units are basically engines that produce power and the heat by-product is used to heat water. A hybrid system is an installation involving more than one type of renewable energy. A typical hybrid system is a wind turbine on the top of a mast and a solar PV panel attached near the top. This way, on a sunny day, if the wind stops the solar panel continues to work and vice versa.
All these methods of producing power can be connected to the national grid. This means when power is produced it goes into the home or business and if you cannot use all the power being produced, you earn money selling it back to the national grid. The alternative is called off grid power, whereby none of the power being produced by the different methods is fed back into the national grid. Instead, the power is connected to batteries to store the energy and then converted back to household electricity to use it as needed.

Grid connect or off grid – which is suitable for me?

If you want to install wind, hydro or solar to your home or business, many people choose to still be connected to the grid. The reason for this is that whenever you produce power, you are selling it back and earning money and if there is not enough wind or sun to supply the power needed, the grid can supply the additional requirement. This system also avoids batteries because you do not need to store the power. Here the grid acts like a huge battery where your turbine feeds power into it and as you need, you take power back again from the grid.
The off grid system is best if you are heating water or, for example, powering up a separate shed of lights and sockets. The advantage here is that you might be able to set up a system for a lot less money and in a remote location. Also, you have power if the grid supply stops. In a grid connect system, when the grid stops, your system also has to stop automatically, for safety, for people repairing the lines.

How can I connect to the grid and how much can I earn selling power back to the grid?

To connect to the grid, you have to apply for an import/ export meter. This is a digital meter that monitors when electricity enters and leaves your home or business. The NC6 form that has to be filled in includes details of the wind turbine, solar, CHP or hydro connection and requires a certificate from a qualified electrician and also a certificate for the inverter, showing that it complies with the EU standard, EN50438. Upon accepting the application, the ESB call out and install an import/ export meter. The maximum connection for a standard single-phase line is 5.75kw. A business with a three-phase line can install more. An average house might use 10 units of electricity per day. You can look at your meter each day to see or check your bill. Ten units per day would equal 3,650 units per year. The rate being paid for each unit of electricity is 9c, by the ESB customer supply, and a further 10c from ESB networks, totalling 19c per unit. However, the negative side is that ESB networks only pay for the first 3,000 units of power produced from a wind turbine and they limit payment to the first five years after connection. This means that the first 3,000 units sold back to the grid earn 19c per unit (€570) and then the rate is 9c per unit.
If you could install a turbine to give 20 units per day, 10 would be used by the home and 10 units sold back to generate over €600 of power sold back to the grid each year. Free power might be great and earning some money too but make sure to do some calculations on the installation costs first to see if the figures add up. It may all sound very complicated to start with but if you are prepared and willing to invest a bit of time, the system will be worth your while from a personal satisfaction and independence perspective, although it wont make you a rich man or woman to sell back power to the grid.

For further questions on Wind Energy and Wind Turbines you can contact eddie@imecofarm.com.