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Blog
Wagner Renewables completes first wind charger installation.
Our engineers have completed our first wind charger installation on a barge in Suffolk.
This story starts a while back in early 2017, the owners of Barge Queenie were looking for an alternative power source. They already had a small wind turbine and a solar thermal system but their main source of electricity was from a generator.
Our project was to install solar with a battery system, completely off grid, suitable for them to run their barge for most of the year.
In August 2017 we completed the solar installation, you can read about here; Barge Queenie Solar Installation.
July 2019 saw our customers contact us again, this time they were looking for a wind turbine. Where our customers are located in Suffolk there is plenty of wind to be harnessed. The turbine already installed is used to charge a 12V battery used for the internal lighting. Based on this they were looking for an additional turbine to be connected into the same system as the Solar which provides the bulk of their electricity. The benefit of using solar and wind together on off-grid systems is that often its windy when there is little sun, the wind charger will also work throughout the night if there is enough wind.
Our technical team were able to source a turbine and relevant equipment that would fit in with the existing system, many wind chargers are 24V, for this project we needed a 48V solution.
This was mounted using a chrome mounting system, as well as some bespoke made parts to ensure security and to allow the turbine to move freely but not blow away!
The turbine is lightweight and easy to install. It also comes with an off / safety switch which will slow the turbine down should the wind get too high. Following feedback from our customers the wind addition to their system is working very well, it would often take the PV alone until around 4pm to full charge the battery system, on some days when it has been windy the batteries are charged by midday. This is also helped by the fact that the turbine is working during the evening to offset their usage, and throughout the night when the PV isn’t producing.
This was an interesting project for the team, and a breath of fresh air from the usual grid connected solar we have become experts in.
