Wind Orchard Energy — Chasing Wind… For Electric Cars
My journey dates back over 15 years. I now call it “chasing wind.” This path stemmed out of frustration with the small wind industry, which was not adopting the technologies that big wind had perfected. At that point in time, the small wind manufacturers were selling turbine technology that was a century old, fixed pitch, and used wooden blades. The industry was unregulated, riddled by faults claims, and there was no third-party testing. As a result, many failures within the industry gave small wind a “bad” name. Chasing wind put me on the path of research and development.
Today, small wind is still unregulated, but if a manufacturer volunteers to have a recognizes third party test its turbines under the new “standards,” and if the turbines pass the test, the manufacture receives a certificate. This certificate opens the door for funding on a state and federal level. “The cream has risen to the top.” Any manufacture of small wind turbines that has chosen to certify its turbines, at a great expense, are worthy of a look. Today’s turbines have evolved much like your smartphone and your flat-screen TV. I represent two manufactures that have the most technically advanced, certified, smart, 24/7-monitoring, small wind turbines on the planet. And here is why you need to take another look.
Our smallest turbine is a 10 kW, computer-variable pitch, on a hydraulic tower. At our test site in NE Colorado, this turbine will produce about 40,000 kWh annually. Last year, I consumed about 10,000 kWh of electricity. That basically gives me an excess of about 30,000 kWh. Up until now, I had two options. The first was to sell all my excess energy back to the grid. At first glance, it was very enticing to think of having the local utility send me a check at the end of the year. In this case, it would be around a thousand dollars. My second option was to only run my turbine to cover the energy that I consume. In this case, it would be around two days per week. The best two days. This sounds counter-productive, and it is, but with a 20-year shelf life, if I decide to only run a quarter of the time, I may get 80 years of production out of my turbine.
Now, I have a third option. The state of Colorado in 2012 set a law to allow anyone to resell their energy! On 6/22/15, I activated the first-in-the-world (as far as I know), DC fast charger (DCFC) energized and driven by a certified, state-of-the-art small wind turbine — with the introduction of affordable electric vehicles that have a range of 100–300 miles in the very near future.
With the lack infrastructure — electric vehicle service equipment (EVSE) — I have decided to enter into the market place. We have just opened the “Wind Farmers Market.” Think of it like a vegetable or lemonade stand. It is the first in a pilot program to get from the Nebraska state line to Denver, with a charging station every 50 miles. What makes this proof of concept so unique is that it is in an agricultural setting. As a farmer of wind, I can reap what I sow — in this case, energy. And with the data technology of the ChargePoint network, they GPS the electric car owner to their next charge site — in this case, my doorstep. I don’t need to be located in a commercial center; I can be on the edge of the corn field or pasture next to the commercial center and/or a few miles away.
So, rather than selling my excess energy to the grid for 3–4 cents per kWh, I now can sell it at whatever the market will bare. And in this case of traveling cross-country on the Interstate highway system, I have read that the going rate is from 60 to 80 cents per kWh. Now, if I sold all of the 40,000 kWh of annual production and the average car took a 50 kWh charge, that equates to 800 car fill-ups per year. This is a game changer for the return on investment (ROI). I’ll let you do the math! I’m currently looking for host sites to complete the pilot program. If you would like more information, please visit windorchardenergy.com — and our new startup is called Take Charge EV.
Thank you,
Jeff Hebert
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Question: is the charger simply “live” or does it have a battery store. If live then it might be out of juice when you want to charge if the wind is not blowing. If stored then that adds an additional expense of at least 12 cents per kwh, which is not a problem if you are selling electricity at 60cents kwh. However, at that rate you are now paying about the same as gas.
The turbine sounds cutting edge. It produces about 40,000kwh year. A similar PV array of 10 kw on a dual axis tracker would produce about 22,000 kwh per year, and would cost about $45,000. It would last at least 30-40 years. How much did the wind turbine cost, fully installed.
This is great news!
Both the turbine and charger are grid tied. We’ve been looking at whatss going on with stationary storage, but until the gigafactory is up and running and I can buy one off the shelf, we’ve decided to wait. The whole idea of this concept is to produce energy at the point of demand. As far as the cost, installation and equipment cost are site specific. There are only a handful of certified installers in the US. and hopefully this will change now that this cutting edge technology has entered into the small wind industry. And the fact is, I now have a new option for my excess energy as opposed to selling it to the grid for three penny’s.
There is insignificant shade over the charging unit, will the materials used be immune to UV over the coming decades ?
60-80c/kWh does sound very expensive. A Nissan Leaf brochure indicates 6.6kWh of charging for 50km driving range approx. which would mean roughly 4-5$ for 30miles. Do you mean 6-8c/kWh ?
What happens when the wind does not blow ? Is there a large battery to store the energy, or do you draw from the grid ? Does the new law allow you to sell what you produce and possibly store, or does it allow you to sell from the grid up to the amount that you produce (and so effectively use the grid as a storage system) ?
I built the site in a week, the shade cloth had not arrived prior to the picture. As far as the cost per / kw, I refer you to an article called ” the Ultimate Guide to Electric Car Charging “. Currently my site is free, that will change in time. The law in Colorado allow anyone to buy and resell energy, with or without a green energy source. The grid is my storage.
Wow, that is really neat.
Great work! Go Jeff!
Thank you
What is the source for the wind generator?
I’m not sure what you are referring to ?
I be leave you mean the manufacture. It is an Osiris Energy 10kw
How do you heat your house?
Its all electric
Wow. Still only using 10,000. Impressive.
Maybe build a marijuana greenhouse…
I burn some wood to.
No FF at all though?
none
Yeah, I tried to google them. Chinese mfg with no viable contact in US. I called and got a xfer to another number and got voice mail on a cell phone.
Please contact me from my web site info, I ‘ll get you in contact with the US rep. Ginlong is the parent company
By the way I am a distributor
Pls state your website or give pricing info
Did you find the info that you were looking for? The turbine is an Osiris 10kw. In the last 3 weeks I’ve product enough energy for the next 4 months.
Did you ever find the info that you where looking for?
> “whatever the market will bare.”
or whatever the market will bear.
(that guy)