Small Wind + Storage Offgrid Fixing

I recently worked on a small offgrid system for a remote house in the mountains of Provence in south of France.

The setup included a black 600 wind turbine, photovoltaic solar panels, lead acid batteries and a 220V inverter for the house electrical supplies.

The battery charger was out of service and the wind turbine had fell off it’s mast after having being washed by the mistral wind for years on.

We dismantled the whole thing because, at the crash of the turbine, the 3-phase wires had unsolded from the brass rings of the yawing sytem. Then we designed a part (from scraped car transmissions) to interface the mast to the turbine body and soldered on the grounded mast.

I designed a new regulation system based on a Tristar TS-45 in diversion mode with a tailored load resistor arrangement. This strategy is similar to the one Hugh Piggott recommends on his blog.

From left to right at the bottom: circuit breaker, Tristar TS-45, 2×6 * 1Ohm resistor bank, 12V battery, 220Vac inverter

Although it is a fairly rigid regulation for a wind turbine, it is a cheap refit, should  keep the wind turbine safe and the fridge battery full!