Wind Power Generation

There are two main types of home wind turbines:

1: Roof or mounted wind turbines: As the name suggests roof mounted wind turbines are installed at the top of the roof or high on the building where they are more likely to be able to take advantage of unobstructed wind power. They are typically small though and will not generate anywhere near enough energy your your daily needs.

Roof Mounted turbines with a suitable wind source are usually 1KW-2.5kW in size and only 1 is allowed per house.

2: Freestanding or Standalone wind turbines: These are going to be more effective – however, they’re going to require open space and uninterrupted wind which means they’re not going to be suited to urban living but for those in rural areas with plenty of land they’re certainly well worth considering.

A small standalone wind turbine is basically a slimmed down version of a commercial wind turbine and are available in varying sizes from 2.5kw right up to 15kw

There is actually a third type of wind turbine but these are not really designed to generate domestic electricity:

3. Micro turbines: These are much smaller, low cost turbines that are really only designed to charge battery packs. These are particularly popular on boats, caravans and motorhomes although some of the bigger ones are used on land – mainly for off-grid, battery charging.

Prices start at just a few hundred £s for these micro turbines but they’re not designed, or powerful enough for generating domestic power.

The answer is … it depends!

England

Roof Mounted Wind Turbines

Planning permission is not required provided that ALL the following conditions are met:

• You have a detached house which is surrounded by other detached houses.
• Installation MUST comply with the microgeneration certification scheme (MCS) planning standards or equivalent.
• There is no existing wind turbine and the property does not have an air source heat pump installed already. 
• The highest part of the wind turbine should not protrude more than 3 metres above the highest part of the chimney, and the overall height of the house and wind turbine should not exceed 15m.
• The distance between the ground and the lowest part of the wind turbine needs to exceed 5m
• A minimum of 5m needs to be between your turbine and the boundary of your property.
• The swept area of a building mounted wind turbine cannot exceed 3.8m².
• Be sited as far as practically possible to limit the impact on amenity of the local area.
• The installation must not be sited on safeguarded land.
• You property is not a listed building.

Additional restrictions apply if you live in a conservation area or world heritage site.

Standalone Wind Turbines

• Installation MUST comply with the microgeneration certification scheme (MCS) planning standards or equivalent.
• The installation must not be sited on safeguarded land.
• There is no existing wind turbine and the property does not have an air source heat pump installed already. 
• The highest part of the stand alone wind turbine must not exceed 11.1 metres.
• The distance between ground level and the lowest part of any wind turbine blade must not be less than five metres.
• An installation is not permitted if any part of the stand alone wind turbine (including blades) would be in a position which is less than a distance equivalent to the overall height of the turbine (including blades) plus 10 per cent of its height when measured from any point along the property boundary.
• The swept area of any stand alone wind turbine blade cannot exceed 3.8m².

Again, additional restrictions apply if you live in a conservation area or world heritage site.

Additional Conditions

Some additional conditions are also required to be met for any type of wind turbine. The wind turbine must :

• use non-reflective materials on blades.
• be removed as soon as reasonably practicable when no longer needed for microgeneration.
• be sited, so far as practicable, to minimise its effect on the external appearance of the building and its effect on the amenity of the area.

Scotland

Planning permission IS required for a mounted wind turbine. However a standalone wind turbine will NOT require planning permission unless:

• There is an existing wind turbine installed at the property
• It is situated less than 100metres from the nearest neighbouring property
• If the property sit=s within a world heritage site, scientific research land, near a listed building or close to land of archaeological interest

Wales and Northern Ireland

If you live in Wales or Northern Ireland you’re going to require planning permission regardless of the type or size of wind turbine.

A decent small wind turbine is not too noisy these days. It’s probably only a little louder than a fridge and because it’s going to be sited high up or away from a property it shouldn’t be that noticeable.

Let’s take an average family living in a typical house … they’re going to be using around 900 kilowatt-hours of electricity per month.

Let’s say they live in a location where the average wind speed is around 14 miles per hour.

In these circumstances a 1.5kilowatt wind turbine should be able to generate around a third of the electricity required.

So, you’re going to have to look at a wind turbine of at least 5Kw in size to provide all the power you need (in theory)!

We say in theory because, of course, averages are just that and there are many variable in this calculation – windspeed is not going to be constant, there’ll be times when there’s no wind and times when the wind is too powerful (in both these instances a wind turbine will not generate power). Usage will vary by time of day and season etc etc so it’s impossible to accurately predict exactly the size of wind turbine you’re going to need but that gives you a rough idea.

Energy usage is measured in kwh. An average household will use around 290kwh of electricity per day.

If we take a small 1.5kw roof mounted wind turbine IF it was turning optimally 24 hours per day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks per year it would produce 252kwh electricity per day (1.5 x 24 x 7) which, in theory, is about 85% of average needs.

But it’s not going to run all the time – and very rarely will wind speed be optimum. Typically wind speed needs to be between 6mph and 55mph for it to work at all and you should be looking for an average wind speed of around 14mph for it to work efficiently – think about it … how often does that happen? It’s certainly no where near 24 hours a day 7 days a week!

That said, a small 1.5kw wind turbine will make a difference and will save you around £150 per year on your electricity.

If you are in a position to go for a larger stand alone wind turbine you can make much more of an impact – a 6kw system for example is likely to save you around £500 a year.

So, if you’re looking for a wind turbine to cover all your electric requirements it’s likely you’ll require something between 5kw and 15kw depending on the site and average windspeed in your area and number of days the wind blows – calculate your average usage from your electricity bills and talk to an expert who will be able to calculate the size of system you will require to stand a chance of fulfilling your requirements.

orry there’s no clear answer – hope you understand why.

At current (2024) rates to give you a rough guide (only rough) as to the cost of wind turbines:

Roof Mounted Wind Turbines:

• A 1kw system will set you back anything from around £2,000

This could save you around £170 a year in electricity costs but a small cost of annual maintenance would mean that it make take many years to pay for itself so, if you can go bigger our advice is do!

Standalone Wind Turbines:

• A good quality 1.5kW system will cost from the region of £8,000
• A larger 2.5kW system will set you back around £14,000
• A 5kW system will be around £25,000

If you can go BIG a 10kW system will cost you up to about £50,000 and a 15kw system around £70,000.

Don’t forget there will may also be initial outlay required to pay for any planning permission, ground works and connection to the grid as required.

Unfortunately wind turbines do not fall under any of the main national schemes in the UK and so there are currently no Government grants available towards the cost of installing wind turbines.

There may occasionally be some regional initiatives so it’s always worth checking with your Local Authority but it’s unlikely you will find any help.

Things may change of course so watch this space!