Using RETScreen
Once you have determined your electrical requirements and identified any financial assistance available, you may want to do a more detailed feasibility study using RETScreen™. Free RETScreen™ software allows you to analyse the technical and financial feasibility of renewable energy projects and then compare options to determine which package is best for you.
RETScreen™ International software is a FREE decision support tool from the Canadian Government (Natural Resources Canada) for evaluating the energy production, life-cycle costs and greenhouse gas emission reductions for renewable energy technologies. It is an easy-to-use tool and has become an international standard for pre-feasibility studies of renewable energy projects. It also includes pre-populated technical specifications for some turbine models and has a detailed online user manual. You may wish to use it to analyse the technical feasibility (ability to generate the electricity you need) and financial feasibility (most affordable for you) of a few appropriately sized turbine models.
The RETScreen™ software and user manual can be downloaded FREE from the RETScreen™ website. Alternatively, to the right is the latest official RETScreen™ module (version 3) for wind energy, saved as four different files containing technical specifications and costs for typical small wind turbines of different sizes. These four sample turbines are used in the Ballpark Cost estimates in the Help with Planning for Your Turbine section of this site. These files may serve as examples, or you can use them to enter technical specifications on another brand and model of turbine you wish to explore.
Download the most recent RETScreen™ wind modules (version 3), pre-populated with data for typical turbine sizes:
- Typical 400 W wind turbine
- Typical 1 kW wind turbine
- Typical 10 kW wind turbine
- Typical 50 kW wind turbine
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