Grid connecting wind turbines in Ireland

[chaso]

I have been looking into grid tie in Ireland and have come up with some interesting information.
It is possible to grid tie a wind turbine as long as it has been certified to EN50438 standard and the electric connection is carried out by a qualified electrician.
At the moment there is no payment for excess electricity onto the grid unless you set-up a company to do so.
So my challenge is to try and get the navitron wind turbines certified with the SMA and Dutch grid tie inverters in Ireland.

Any extra information on this would be helpful

[Ivan]

I don't know anything about this standard. It is not one in normal use for small scale grid-connection systems, and as far as I know, none are certified to this standard. I think it is fairly likely that it relates to utility-sized installations, and therefore unlikely to be implementable on a small scale. From what I understood, in S.Ireland, it is not possible to connect small scale renewables to the grid - It needs some persistent questions to your MPs asking them to change the law to encourage small scale renewable energy production. As you only have one electricity generating company, it may be worth badgering them too.

Ivan

[chaso]

This is where I got the information from, I talked to the ESB which is the main electricity board.
The EN50438 which most of the criteria has been taken from G83 and is for Micro Generation, this is going to be used across Europe once it assumes full EN status.
over here single phase is  25Amps at 230volts and for three phase it is 16Amps at 230/400volts.

I was hoping you might have heard a whisper of this.

I am really interested in the grid tie systems you have been testing as they would go down great over here.

[Ivan]

Sorry, I don't know any more. I think it is worth contacting them and asking if G83 would be sufficient - especially if their standard is derived from G83. I think, reading between the lines, that given their responses to other enquiries for grid-connect systems, that they really are not interested and would rather not bother. From their point of view, it is a lot of paperwork and hassle and effectively takes a little of their market away - so they are not particularly keen. Let us know if you get anywhere with it!

[needone]

Hey new to these forums.
Im gettin my info from SelfBuild.ie so if wrong not my fault. But i am sure
all of it is true.

In The Republic it costs 9500euro + VAT for a license
from our only electricity company(Goverment owned) to connect to grid.
Then 5000euro for the meteringing equipment.
Thats if i want to connect a 2 Kw turbine or a 100 Mw wind farm.

Thats why i wont and dont think any private homeowner will be trying
to use solar or wind electricity in The Republic of Ireland produced by them
selves.

The Goverment say these laws will change next year. But 2007 is our general
election year. So they will say everything is comin next year

[mayo wizard]

Grid tie in Ireland is NOT YET legal but it will be despite what needone may think. The General Election will have no impact on the timescales for introducing this because there is broadly all-party agreement and also Ireland must fall in line with the European Directives which have been issued.

The CER (Commission for Energy Regulation) issued CER/06/190 "Arrangements for Micro Generation" Consultation Paper on 10 October 2006. Closing date for comments was 3rd November and final revision due in January 2007. The paper is still available at www.cer.ie/cerdocs/cer06190.pdf and you will see that the proposed cost of applying to ESB for approval will be €20.
The technical specifications for this have already been finalised by ESB "Conditions Governing the Connection and Operation of Microgeneration". They are based upon EN50438 with permitted variations to account for the Distribution Network here.
The planning regulations have been relaxed to permit installation without the need for planning approval on wind turbines up to 4m rotor diameter on a 10m mast provided that they can be sited one and half times their total height from any boundary or other structure. It should be noted that building mounted turbines are NOT exempt and will still require planning permission whatever their size, which is fair enough since they are just "eco-ornaments" 

And yes chasottman they ARE going down great over here - I have 15 orders in the pipeline for 2k to 10k systems. There are a lot of people, especially in the West, who are going to install wind turbines and also water turbines (but they are more problematic with EIS required for each one plus lots of other requirements in their design etc). With a 20% rise in the cost of electricity from January 2007 there are going to be a lot more too!

Hope this helps.

Paul
Connaught Alternative Technology
 

[needone]

20euro to apply for what wizard?
Sorry if not over optimistisic. But where i live at least 3/4 of
 wind turbine(commercial) are rejected by the County Council

[mayo wizard]

The €20 is basically a fee submitted with your application to grid-tie a wind turbine. ESB will then check the application to determine whether the elements of the system are all type approved or if they are not type approved they will compare the details provided against the Technical Standards that they have published. The €20 fee will be to offset the cost of administering the system.

With the impending change this year to Planning Permission the County Councils will no longer be able to veto domestic installations which fulfill all of the necessary pre-requisites. I have no boubt that many commercial applications will still be rejected.

Best wishes,

Paul

[needone]

Cheers for that.
That is good news. Ill definately be installing one so