Micro turbines can meet much of a family's power needs, manager says
MAVILLETTE, Digby County — Micro turbines are coming.
They’re not toys for rambunctious boys. They’re actually personal windmills for families in need of cheap electricity.
“It was designed to power a single home," said Robert Foster, who installed one only days ago.
A Skystream 3.7 micro turbine is up and spinning this week at his Digby County home where the wind seldom stops blowing.
A generator weighing 77 kilograms sits atop a 15.25-metre pole near Mavillette Beach on St. Marys Bay, about 10 kilometres south of Meteghan.
When the three fibreglass composite blades are spinning, they have a diameter of 3.72 metres.
On a breezy day it sounds a lot like a group of racing bicycles speeding past — in low gear.
Not very noisy.
It’s held in place by some 12 tonnes of concrete.
This windmill is 21 metres from Mr. Foster’s back door. Sitting in his kitchen, he can’t hear the blades whirring away...
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