Street light poles

[martin]

has anyone any experience of using the sort of pole that is used for street lights as a tower for a small turbine? - it seems a very good, and fairly "eco-friendly" way of mounting one - you need not use an enormous amount of concrete, as in a conventional base, and I reckon they should be up to supporting some of the smaller turbines - any thoughts?

[Antman]

Martin

As an observation, the street lamp outside my place moves noticeably in any reasonable wind or gusts. May only be 1/2" or so of actual movement, but that's just with the lamp housing attached. The windage on a similar pole witha turbine on would be significant in comparison.

But as with aerial masts, I guess there are different 'guage' street lamp poles for different windage ratings.

Antman

[Ivan]

I've certainly seen a few wind turbine manufacturers using streetlight poles. Someone even suggested that the Proven 2.5kW free-standing tower was a modified streetlight pole design, although I do not know if this is true or not.

I have not decided whether manufacturers using streetlight poles as wind towers have 1.)done lots of tests/calculations to show that it is safe 2.)have not appreciated the safety requirements!

on the face of it, it seems a very logical choice, as they are mass-produced and often the right sort of height. I don't know if they will withstand the extra wind-resistance of having a turbine sat on the top

Ivan