At least when you are considering windturbines or windmills. Lowtech Magazine reports about a real life test conducted in the Southwest of the Netherlands (Zeeland), a relatively windy and open area near the sea. If small windmills can perform, they must be able to do it over there. As earlier predicted the test proved that the concept of a small windmill is fundamentally flawed. Size of the rotor matters.
Close to the test site stands a (relatively) large windmill with a rotor diameter of 18 meters. It delivers 143,000 kWh per year, or an average power output of 16,324 watts. It can power 42 Dutch households. This large windmill costs only slightly more than all small windmills combined (17 percent more, to be exact, or 190,000 euro), but it delivers almost 20 times more energy. This comes down to 4,523 euro per household.
Wind power rules, but small windmills are a swindle. Bigger is, in this case, better.
