How much does it cost to add solar panals and a wind generator to a 43 foot sailboat?
A turn key system and how hard are they to install?
AMPAIR Wind Generator Blades / Cruising / West Marine / Sailboats
 | US $20.00 (0 Bid) End Date: Thursday Feb-09-2012 17:40:19 PST Bid now | Add to watch list |
They both have problems. Is this to operate when in motion or just when tied up? first I’ll assume when in motion.
A solar panel only works in direct sun, so where would you located it where the sun would not be blanked by the sails?
Wind turbines are efficient only when natural wind turns them. If you use forward motion to turn the vanes, you wind up losing energy, as the work required to push the turbine forward is more than you can extract from their motion.
And also, where can you place it where it will not interfere with the sails?
But if you can work out these problems…
The cost depends on how large an installation you want, or can fit in.
Solar arrays for a house can cost upwards of $20000.
If this is for stationary use only, it has a much better chance of succeeding, at least the solar part of it. If you always tie up in the same orientation, the solar array can be planned around that.
Wind turbine for stationary use is more difficult, as you would have to disassemble it when in motion.
Turnkey means it gets installed for you.
For comparison, a typical (turn-key) residential solar system costs about $9/Watt. So the total cost depends how much power you want to get out of your solar panels. As to the wind generators, you’re not going to get much power out them at that size, so you probably wouldn’t want to do that.