A small and inexpensive wind turbine has been developed for the Swedish farmers market. A prototype for the Nordan Wind NW-22 was installed in Kristinehamn at Lake Vanern in August. It was developed by Industrikunskap i Ostra Varmland AB (IKOV), which is owned by the community, the local utility and local companies. The unit has a 22 kW generator that sits on a tower 18 metres tall. The rotor is 13 metres in diameter with three blades -- notable because Swedish wind turbine engineers have so far been two blade fundamentalists. The foundation is 6.25 square metres and a half metre deep. A farmer can easily erect the turbine himself, IKOV claims. Further, the machine can be connected "inside" the grid, which means no tax or grid fees. The aim is to sell the turbine for SEK 300,000 or less. IKOV was established to develop new products with the co-operation of companies in the area. One of these is Kvaerner Turbines, which built a 3 MW prototype on Näsudden and had a large role in constructing this unit at the opposite end of the size scale.
