Swift Wind Turbines
I saw a Swift wind turbine at the Museum of Science today. This is designed to be a quiet rooftop wind turbine designed for residential use. Apparently the mounting pole has a rubber core which dampens the vibrations that will be transferred to the building it is mounted on. MoS is going to mount a few on its rooftop and test their real-life performance in an urban setting. I am looking forward to reading about the results of the tests.
As an aside, they quote $10,000 to $12,000 as the installed cost per turbine and that it could pay itself back in as low as 3 years. By my calculations we will need 2 turbines to generate enough electricity for our family. Let us say that is $25,000 total. Today I can get a 20-year (the design life of the turbine) home equity loan at 7.75% costing me $8.21 per $1000 loan. That comes to $205 per month for the $25,000 loan. That's way more than our electricity bill and clearly is not going to work for us unless we get subsidies for the installation.
As an aside, they quote $10,000 to $12,000 as the installed cost per turbine and that it could pay itself back in as low as 3 years. By my calculations we will need 2 turbines to generate enough electricity for our family. Let us say that is $25,000 total. Today I can get a 20-year (the design life of the turbine) home equity loan at 7.75% costing me $8.21 per $1000 loan. That comes to $205 per month for the $25,000 loan. That's way more than our electricity bill and clearly is not going to work for us unless we get subsidies for the installation.
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