Renewable Energy Equipment

Trading as Scoraig Wind Electric I sell and install wind, hydro and pv equipment along with batteries and inverters for stand-alone systems.  I am happy to spend time on the phone or by e-mail (not so happy with letters) discussing your requirements.  I often have to persuade people not to buy a wind turbines, which is hard, but necessary if they have very little wind or they think they can save money off their mains electricity bill.  I try to limit my sales to successful systems.
Government grants are coming in this year to assist with installation of small renewable energy systems.  They offer a 30% grant on systems installed by an approved contractor.

Wind turbines

I sell the Ampair Hawk, which is probably the most robust wind turbine I have ever come across.  The Hawk is suitable for a very small bothy or holiday home in a windy spot.  It can deliver about 15kWh of electricity a month.  The cost is £466 plus VAT.
There are more pictures of Hawk installations I have done on the Ampair page under galleries > Isle of Eigg.  Most of these pictures were actually taken on Scoraig.  It also shows a twin turbine installation on the Isle of Eigg.

The ampair is a battery-charging wind turbine with 12 and 24 volt options.  It is usually necessary to buy a separate regulator to control the battery charge rate.

I import the African Windpower AWP36 machine from Zimbabwe in batches every couple of years.  I am fond of this machine because I designed it myself.  It is very cost-effective but availability is not so good because of the shipping and the situation in Zimbabwe.
Rotor diameter is 3.6 metres so the AWP can catch plenty of energy in light winds.
"Nothing tells you more about a

   wind turbine's potential than
         rotor diameter."
             - Paul Gipe
    -Wind Energy basics, Chelsea Green 1999

I use it for powering my own house and it produces about 200kWh per month on average.  I also use 500 watts of photovoltaics to keep my system going during the calmer months. My last batch of AWP turbines sold at £2000 each plus VAT.

I recommend and sell the Proven range of wind turbines because I know from experience that they are very robust and durable.  Prices range from £1845 for the 600 watt machine to £7765 for the 6kW.  I prefer the 2.5kW machine (£3655) because of its track record.
I act as an agent for Wind and Sun, the UK agents for Trace.  I can therefore sell inverters, solar panels, charge controllers etc. at the same list price as Wind and Sun (including the 10% discount on Trace SW inverters).  For smaller systems the range of Studer sine wave inverters are often a good choice.

Hydro turbines are usually the best option if you have a suitable site.  I sell the north american battery charging turbines from Energy Systems and Design, and Harris hydroelectric.

Photo: Paul Cunningham of Energy Systems and Design, Canada

I am also looking into the idea of importing Platypus turbines from Australia, as a substitute for building larger hydro turbines myself.  With a good flow of water and a reasonable gradient, you can produce enough power to make a direct AC supply to the house without batteries.