Local renewables company Little Green had an example of the vertical turbine, the AirTurb, on display in Market Square yesterday where it attracted attention from several curious passers-by and saw a few deputies pop down to take a look in their lunch break from this week’s States sitting.
Deputy de Sausmarez was one of these, although she had seen the turbine before.
‘It’s really exciting to see this kind of innovative product in Guernsey,’ she said.
‘This is such a great example of something that uses our natural resources at a domestic scale. For the resilience of the island it’s really important to have a good mix of different types of energy generation.’
Economic Development Committee member Sasha Kazantseva-Miller said it was important to embrace innovation and new ways of doing things.
‘This is an example of an innovative product.
‘We need something like this as part of our energy mix since it works when the sun isn’t shining.’
Little Green managing director Ben Le Huray said the example on display could generate 500 watts of power, including some electricity from the solar panels that can form part of its base if it was stood on a flat roof. It is designed to have heavy patio slabs to hold it down.
But the main turbine could be attached to a tall pole, such as a lamppost. A 4m version is also due to be available, which would be in a protected cage to prevent birds hitting it.
One unit would cost about £6,000 to be installed, compared to about £10,000 for a basic domestic solar panel array capable of providing 4Kw of power.
It does not require a lot of wind to turn it, but could withstand wind speeds of up to 167mph, he said – but the company recommended people tie it in place during stormy conditions.
With the island’s annual average wind speed of about 13mph being better than the UK’s 10mph, it is an ideal place to capitalise on wind power.
‘This is designed to sit alongside our renewable energy systems,’ said company operations director Jamie Clark. It would run all day long and provide power to devices like TVs and other electronics while they are in stand-by mode.
‘It could be for people who don’t have the space for solar panels,’ he said.
The technology is about three years old and was commercialised only last year. The Dutch inventor had visited the island to talk to Little Green.
It installed its first unit late last year.
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