Innovation

Are Giv thinking about something like this https://thepowercollective.ca/products/rb1/ into the givenergy mix for days when it's cloudy.
Also I saw a post on linkedIn about giv smart plugs any news on that?

Permitted development in England doesn't allow anything higher than the existing ridge, so there would need a change in planning laws before this became viable. Other countries in the UK have more stringent planning laws.
Though, I can't comment on your direct question of what's in GE's commercial pipeline.

deepfat

I actually quite like this. But would need to be site surveyed, as its seems to only be 2 way wind. If you get wind along the length, it wont be much use

Horses for courses on the wind direction, but this would be lovely to compliment a solar array on a modern house.
You'd definately need planning permission to put it in the UK, so permitted development is out, but it's a good idea in principle.

No prices on the website. The specifications are blank. Look on the Accredited Partner page- zero installers in the UK. There's supposed to be four Accredited Partners in the whole of the US but when you click on the map pointers there's no details. The LinkedIn link doesn't work.
Add to that the obvious need for the wind to be blowing in just the right direction.

Yeah, I'm calling snake-oil and vaporware on this one.

Zakalwe

I wouldn’t be surprised if it was snake oil, but the principle of wind and solar combined is a good thing.

Like a lot of things, I suspect there is a lack of people actually pushing for this sort of solution so its not commonly available. Been doing some looking into options myself as if the inverter can take solar OR wind, then why can't it do both, use wind just to top up / help during times when its not so sunny... like now (winter).

I imagine there would be noticeable vibration or droning noise through the house from this too.

A friend of mine went for a wind turbine some years ago - he has a large field behind his house - and do a load of research and bought what he thought was the best one for the money (he spent around £40k) - it was a big bugger.

Got it all installed and working - but found that it had a horrendous vibration at slow wind speeds - like a motorbike going past. Did more digging and found the design was basically flawed and the motor position on the tower was such that there was a harmonic it would it that matched the towers and it was the tower that was vibrating - he found others with the same issue - one in Scotland snapped the tower (The tower is something like a meter across at the bottom).
He has had his lying on the floor and in-op for years now. Shame. He is working on a solution to it, but like everything he does, it takes time.

I have a GivEnergy AC coupled system with batteries with 8+4 solar panels and a vertical axis wind turbine. AC allows for 2 inverters so one is attached to the 8 panels, the other (a Delta3000) is attached to the 4 panels and turbine.

There were problems to overcome but it was great to work out a solution! Small vertical axis on a flat garage roof usually gets over planning problems and vibration. you need an inverter with a low start up voltage that the turbine can activate. Delta is 30v but switches on when the 4 panels start up in the morning. In theory power from wind and sun 24/7 but location/wind speeds are crucial.

So, it is possible but the choice of turbines is very limited. With current energy problems/costs lets hope there will be more soon. I have eyes on one in the USA but it must be still under final development.

Dataman Would you be able to post a few more details, please? Would two turbines in series get over the low start up voltage issue? Does GE publish how the AC system handles two inverters?
Thanks!

wrefordj There's no special needs for the AC system to handle multiple inverters - all it needs is that the Inverterrs output AC and that somehow these end up tied together to look like one AC feed. The GE AC3 doesn't care where the AC power comes from just that it is within voltage specification.