Site Assessment for Wind Turbine

Installation
You first need to ensure that your site is suitable for a wind turbine. Turbotrcity offer
two options to help you assess your site:

1. We can help you with a free desktop survey of your site

2. We can call out and carry out a site assessment for you for a fee of €200

The suitability of your site will depend on a number of factors:

 The wind speed in your area (this can be assessed from wind maps that are
available online. You can find further information on how to assess this by
clicking here wind assessment procedures
 Whether the site is open to prevailing winds. Turbulence can significantly reduce
turbine output if the turbine is downwind from buildings, trees or other obstacles
 Size of site – ideally the turbine should be over 50m from your house or from
neighbouring houses.
 Planning – there is an exemption, provided that the turbine base is more than
14m from any boundary, and meets other conditions – see planning
 Shadow flicker – You need to position the turbine in such a way that the sun
rising or setting at any time of the year does not cause a flickering shadow on windows
in yours or your neighbour’s house. If there are days on which this occurs, we can
programme your inverter to stop the turbine at such times, but there is a small
additional charge for doing this work.
 Ground conditions – our tower and foundation are designed for installation in
clay. If your site has very deep topsoil, bog, or solid rock, we will need to quote for a
suitably engineered solution to meet your needs.

Location of turbine within your site

You may like to consider where you want the turbine located. This should be far enough
from your house to reduce noise, and if your site is sloping, would normally be close to
the highest point. At the same time, if the cable from the turbine to the house is
greater than 100m, there will be a small additional installation charge.

In prevailing winds, where possible, the turbine should not be downwind of any
buildings, trees or other major obstacles that are less than 50m away. If this cannot be
avoided, it will result in some loss of output. We can try to assess this loss, but it is
difficult to accurately predict.

The turbine will be connected to your house using an underground cable. The path of
this cable should be as short as possible, at the same time seeking to minimise
disturbance to flower-beds, tarmacadam paths or other features.

If possible, the turbine should be located on the same side of the house as the fuse-
board. However, if this is not feasible, our installers can run the necessary cabling.
For current planning exemptions to apply, the turbine must be behind the front wall of
your house, more than 14m from any boundary and meet other requirements –
see planning

Location of Power Management System

The cable from the turbine is connected to a controller and inverter, which is then
connected to your grid. We would normally install these components beside the fuse-
board if there is sufficient wall space.

However, if there is electricity in a garage our outhouse, you may prefer to install the
power management components there. This can only be done if the cable connecting
the garage or outhouse is capable of carrying the maximum output of the turbine (5-
6kw).

If you wish to connect a computer to the inverter to monitor output and performance of
the system, you should bear this in mind when considering where to locate the power
management system.

For a small extra cost, we can install the power management system in an outdoor box
under the roof eaves if preferred.