The “holy grail” as it were of developing world solar power proponents is $1/watt. This is often seen as the point at which local electricity generation becomes affordable for the majority of the world’s population that do not currently have regular, reliable access to a regional electrical grid. This then begs the question, “Should $1/watt be the target of any new, small-scale renewable energy project?” Furthermore, if that price point appears unattainable is it foolhardy to chase after a technology that is otherwise very appealing? The only way we can know for certain is by dealing directly with our end-user to establish what they can afford and how much they will be willing to pay.

That said, it is still informative to thoroughly evaluate a technology to see how it fits into the panoply of options. This is exactly what we are attempting to do with our wind turbine and the testing we intend to conduct at the NASA-Ames research center. Our goal is to establish just how much mechanical power one can reasonably attempt to collect from the wind with a small, family-sized, vertical-axis wind turbine using the most promising blade designs we’ve encountered. Using the data we collect we should be able to estimate just how much it will cost per watt to simply capture the energy before turning it into electricity (this is based on the costs associated with building the turbine: blades, bearing, shaft, etc.). From there we will be able to predict just how much money we can afford to spend on the generator and circuitry and still achieve the price point our partner, AIDG, will help us establish (is is truly $1/watt or a more achievable $10/watt?). The amount of money available for the generator and circuitry based upon this price point will directly inform just how feasible this product may be for rural Guatemalan villages.

It could well be that the raw materials alone for the alternator simply price the whole concept above our acceptable price target; it is, after all, notoriously difficult to scale wind generation down and keep it cost-effective. As a rule of thumb, the larger a turbine is the less the electricity it generates costs per watt. We hope our tests prove that small, vertical-axis turbines are a promising avenue for additional design research (we’re fans of wind energy, after all), but the numbers won’t lie and should allow us to provide AIDG with a realistic evaluation as to how good an investment their continued development appears to be.