Thread: wind generators
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Old 01-09-2013, 09:02 AM   #30
Aquabelle
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City: East Coast, Australia
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Here is a link to a comparative test review of various brands of wind generators carried out by Practical Sailor recently: http://www.naviclub.com/Test_compara...nes_marine.pdf

Reading this and the comments of experienced sailors, my conclusion is that solar panels are significantly better than wind generators on several fronts (including output and noise). Wind generators are chosen by sailors over solar panels only because most sailboats have limited room to mount panels. On most (not all) trawlers, this is not such a problem so solar panels make more sense.

If on the other hand you are going to have a genset on board anyway, the case for having wind or solar is much weaker: sure you might shorten genset run-times a bit, but the cost of a little extra genset time vs the capital cost and hassle of installing & maintaining wind and/or solar has to be pretty marginal. The exception to this would be boats that are on swing moorings rather than marinas with shorepower access , during non-cruising times. Although it is relatively easy to set up a genset to auto-start when battery low set-points are reached, most of us don't like the idea of a diesel engine starting up when we're not aboard to monitor. So on a swing mooring, to keep batteries charged and bilge pumps active, a solar panel (or if no room, wind generator) might make sense.
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