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Comment by porker | Hacker News Reader

I agree, however our 5kW solar roof in southern England has barely generated 1kWh/day since October. Apart from that still period in November we've got wind, generally 10-15mph at roof height.

A feasible home wind turbine would be a good addition in winter.

Or buying a share of a massive wind turbine, but the maths of Ripple Energy have never stacked up when I've looked at it.

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Looking at urban landscapes in Europe in general I expect diminishing returns with everyone placing a useful windmill. And it would be ugly as hell no matter what (imagine every roof having one of these monstrosities).

Hello from 50-55 degrees latitude where we get our heads blown off by the jet stream all. the. time.

Yours might be HN's first comment from South Georgia!

I’ll learn to not mix those two sometime in the next decade. Pinky promise

Pop culture and mainstream politics affect people’s opinions in a weird way. Only in the USA and some part of the western world, people see wind turbines as “ugly”. Coming from another part where wind turbines are picking up very fast, the words I have heard are “amazing” and “elegant”.

Until you're living near one of them, and constantly hear the low thump, thump, thump their blades make when passing lowest point, and as such their very own mast, by necessity.

At varying speeds.

Indeed. I regard wind turbines as striking kinetic sculptures in the landscape.

Make them sparkle and glitter. Can't be more ugly than the forests of countless antennas for terrestial TV, which were not that uncommon not too long ago, or the satellite dishes pointing south to GEO.

From what I hear the showstopper for home wind turbines is the noise. Even the quietest ones produce some sound, which at your house when you're trying to sleep is annoying.

I'd imagine things with moving parts need alot of maintenance too.

Agree on Ripple Energy especially for the way the tax worked on it.

Their solar offer seemingly made even less financial sense, due to the very high cost of paying for your slice of the huge costs of running the national grid. The only reason for going with it would be environmental (effectively subsidising sustainable energy on the grid to displace other sources)

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