United Wind, a distributed wind developer, has purchased 100 Excel 10 wind turbines from Bergey WindPower, a small wind turbine manufacturer. This purchase represents the largest order ever, by number of units, for either company.
The Bergey Excel 10 wind turbine has a rated peak output of 10 kW and typically produces 15,000 to 25,000 kWh/year depending on wind resource, enough electricity, says the company, to power a home, small farm, or business. The purchased turbines will be installed on United Wind customer properties throughout Central and Western New York as part of the company’s WindLease program.
WindLease lets property owners lease a wind turbine and benefit from below market, fixed electricity costs for up to 30 years without upfront expenses. “With WindLease, we empower rural property owners to immediately lower their cost of electricity and lock it in below historical inflation for up to 30 years,” explains Russell Tencer, CEO of United Wind. “This landmark order of 100 Bergey Excel 10 wind turbines demonstrates the strong customer demand for WindLease as well as the beginning of the maturation of the distributed wind industry supply chain, which will enable the industry to compete in more markets as we continue to focus on lowering installed costs.”
“We are pleased to be the exclusive 10-kW wind turbine supplier to United Wind’s pioneering WindLease program, which lets customers enjoy the benefits of a small wind system without the burden of high upfront costs,” adds Mike Bergey, President & CEO of Bergey WindPower. “This latest order for Bergey turbines by
United Wind is the largest single purchase of small wind turbines, as measured by units, in U.S. history. It’s a victory for U.S. manufacturing and the small wind turbine industry.”
The US Department of Energy recently estimated that distributed wind power is feasible for about 49.5 million residential, commercial, and industrial sites across the United States. The overall maximum resource potential for distributed wind turbines of less than 1 megawatt in size is estimated at 3 terawatts (TW) of capacity or 4,400 TW-hours of generation—more electricity than the United States consumes in a year.
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