SMALL WIND Most opportunities in wind power are on large commercial wind farms , but we ’ d be remiss not to mention small-scale wind
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turbines . Ernest Gavey runs Solazone , which , among other things , installs small-scale wind turbines and generators in Vic and Qld .
“ The systems we do are smaller – they ’ re mainly for homes and community buildings ,”
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he says . “ We do anything from 300W up to 5kW . Most stand alone on poles , some are on boats and some are on the top of existing roofs . Some are also connected to batteries .”
Experience with DC wiring is an important
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skill for working in small-scale wind , he says . “ People who have training in solar have this experience , but a lot of electricians don ’ t .”
Gavey says it ’ s “ very , very difficult ” to find trained wind installers , partly because there ’ s very little training available to sparkies .
And even though demand is increasing , small-scale projects are still few and far between . “ If you ’ re prepared to travel all over the place , maybe you ’ d get enough work , but you probably need to do solar as well ,” says Gavey . “ Wind is becoming more popular , but it ’ s not so popular that you ’ d make a living out of it at the moment .”
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Big wind Queensland ’ s Forest Wind farm is going to be a biggie – possibly the biggest . With as many as 226 turbines about to be embedded in a lush pine plantation north of the Sunshine Coast , the 1200mW project could power one in four – or 500,000 – Queensland homes by 2030 , thanks to energy blowing in from the Pacific Ocean . Construction is set to begin later this year , with the wind farm to begin operation in late 2023 .
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