Swept area
The Eco 20kW has a blade diameter of 10.00 metres. This means it has a swept area, or capture area of 78.54 square metres. This is all important when comparing wind turbines, since it directly relates to the amount of passing wind energy
the turbine blades can intercept.
Eco 20kW power output curve
The graph below shows the power produced (in watts) for the Eco 20kW at different wind speeds, based on
data supplied by the manufacturer.
The green line shows the actual output that the wind turbine achieves at the given wind speed,
according to the manufacturers.The dashed line in the graph shows the theoretical maximum energy that this turbine could extract from the wind,
according to Betz's Law (59.3%). At a typical wind speed of
5 m/s, the Eco 20kW is extracting
1650 Watts of power from the wind, which is an efficiency of
27.33%.
How efficient is the Eco 20kW?
Wind turbines can only convert some of the energy in the wind into electricity. The graph here shows how efficient the
turbine is across the range of wind speeds you might get.
The orange line in the above graph shows the efficiency ranging from 0 to 1. The grey line is the previously mentioned maximum efficiency - The Betz Limit. If this limit is exceeded, the manufacturer's claims are not to be trusted!
While these graphs give an indication of the instantaneous power and efficiencies you might expect from the
Eco 20kW turbine, working out annual power production is more complex.
Read more about the
Power Predictor
$46,000 (£27,140 at 1 dollar = 0.59 GBP) The price includes the turbine, hydraulic tower, and controller.
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