Wind Turbine on a Tug?

[aculverwell]

Wondering whether anyone considered or actually installed a Wind Turbine on their Ranger Tug or Cutwater (to supplement electrical generation)? Similar to this: https://www.emarineinc.com/categories/A ... nd-Turbine?

Seems like this might be a good way to generate extra power without a gas generator- dependent on wind of course.

Any thoughts or experience?

 

[BradOwens]

Wind turbines are a good choice for sailboats because they typically don't have a large surface area free for mounting solar panels.
For tugs, their best use would be for cloudy days and at night. I'm not sure the gains would outweigh the expense.

 

[aculverwell]

Thanks Brad, I was mostly considering the wind turbine for winter use when solar isn't very productive-- but there is a lot of wind. Thanks for the insights.

 

[fishheadbarandgrill]

I would upgrade your solar before considering wind. We have a 330 LG panel with Victron controller and monitor. Even in the winter we'd be 100 percent on the batteries at sunset and wake up in the 90's. We're fully LED on our lights and coming from the sailing world, we are relatively light on amp hour consumption. We're mostly watching TV at night. You don't want to neglect your genset in any case by not running it just because you don't have to.

 

[knotflying]

I would think that while underway you would have to secure it from turning. I see them primarily on sailboats and assume because they go slow and when under sail there is no charging of batteries. There is a reason you don't normally see them on power boats.

 

[FlyMeAway]

I would think that while underway you would have to secure it from turning.

Initially I thought the same, but working out the physics of it I can't quite understand why. You can find ones rated to 40+ knots, which is more than they're likely to get on one of our tugs unless you're in a gale...

 

[dgiles]

I do believe that the wind turbines can be fairly loud when spinning. Obviously, it doesn't matter if you are up and about, but during the evening or when things are quiet, they can be quite annoying.