According to the Guardian, most domestic turbines are only generating 5-10% of the manufacturers’ claims. Dramatic stuff but maybe not a huge surprise. I think there’s been a growing realisation among professionals in the built environment that small wind in built up areas rarely works.
But it’s important to remember that in most cases this poor performance is not the fault of the turbines themselves; they’ve just been placed badly by designers and over-hyped by manufacturers.
Located somewhere with decent wind (on the back of a sailboat, on top of a tall mast on a windy hill, etc) they’ll do the job. But bolted to the chimney of a Victorian semi in Surbiton? Almost definitely not. Even Ashenden House, a 13-storey tower in Elephant and Castle, hasn’t proved to be a salubrious place for turbines.
So blame the engineers and architects, blame manufacturers for short-sightedly over-hyping their own products, but don’t blame the turbines. It would be a mistake if we were to dismiss the technology as a result. Small wind still has an important role to play, even if that role is more limited than many people hoped.
carbon limited 
Casey,
Location of report from warwick wind trials that this article is derived from
http://www.warwickwindtrials.org.uk/2.html
Cheers
Tom
Thanks Tom.
Scotland could 16 wind turbines a day and the World’s largest Wind Farm.
With just 16 Days of Oil Revenue, Scotland could have allocated enough money to give the £500 million pound plan for 250 turbines to create the world’s largest wind farm in the Hebrides the GREEN light
The Scottish Government must previal in the quest for Independence as North Sea Oil will last for another 100 years according to industry anaylists.
If the people of Scotland say YES to Scottish Independence in 2010, Britian and the World will be a greener place.
Scottish Oil is worth
£22,831 a minute,
£32 million a day,
£12 billion a year
North Sea Oil is the UK’s Largest Industry landing, 700,000 barrels of oil per day.
Scotland is one of Europes largest oil producers
And what is Westminster spending their Scottish Gift money on…..
…. not very green, not very environmental, not very sensible policies.
help the scots – help themselves and the World
www. oilofscotland.org