Q: What is a grid tie inverter?
A: A grid tie inverter is an inverter which takes the direct currents produced by the generator of a wind turbine and convert it to a form which can be directly exported to the electricity grid network. The benefits of this is that the owner can directly utilise this energy in his normal household usage and offset his electricity bills.

Q: What happens if I do not use all of the electricity that is being produced? Is this energy stored?
A: Well any surplus electricity that is not utilised will be directed back into the grid network. Unlike a battery charging system, this energy is not stored but is sent to other users on the electricity network.

Q: Why do we not use a battery charging system instead?
A: The many reasons for not wanting to use a battery charging system. Batteries can only store a limited amount of energy, have a finite operational life which is very dependent on the usage pattern. Batteries are expensive when they are required to store alot of energy. The added stage of using a battery charger and the charging and discharging of the batteries reduces the overall efficiencies of the system. Batteries tend to operate under low voltages and this also reduces efficiencies due to the high currents present and require expensive thick cables to operate. In addition, batteries contain a lot of environmentally unfriendly chemicals which we would all like to avoid.

Q: So will we be paid for the surplus electricity that we produce.
A: This depends very much on the local regulations and policies. Many countries are strongly encouraging its citizens to be reduce their energy demand and even incentivise them to produce surplus in order to reduce the damands placed on the generation companies. Many places are already putting schemes to meter any excess electricity produced and to pay the owner for it. Check with your local utilities for more information. In any case, if all the electricity generated is used within the household, then this can be considered as the utility company paying the owner back for the amount of energy he would have otherwise had to buy from the utility.

Q: Can we use a PV inverter on a wind turbine system?
A: Technically, this is possible, however, it would be not ideal to do so as these are two very different applications with different characteristics. Just as one would not take a Formula 1 race car to go rallying racing, you would not want to use a PV inverter for a wind turbine because the requirements for a wind turbine are much more demanding.

Q: So what is different between wind and solar generation systems?
A: Solar systems have been developed for a source which is relatively stable, the sun's rays do not change in intensity very suddenly and usually is present for around 8-12 hours a day. A PV inverter does not have to react quickly to sudden changes unlike for a wind turbine where winds gusts all the time and the inverter has to be ready to capture that energy quickly. Solar inverters can afford to shut down at night but wind turbine inverters have to stay on for much longer as one can not predict when the winds will be blowing.

Q: What about using your wind turbine grid tie inverter on a PV system?
A: Although our grid tie inverters have been optimised for use with a wind turbine system, we have a version of the inverter which has special control algorithms which perform the necessary Maximum Power Point Tracking for use with a PV system. Due to our wide operating input voltage range, we can adapt our unit to suit more systems than many other PV inverters.

Q: Is there anything unique about Ginlong's wind turbine inverters?
A: We have been designing inverters which optimise the energy capture for wind turbines and have developed new and patent pending algorithms which outperform other systems at the moment. Some of these control schemes have already been put in use in our production units and others are in the final stages of testing before being released in the market.

Q: I am a manufacturer and would like for you to customise your unit to suit my turbine. What can you do for me?
A: We always welcome wind turbine manufacturers to contact us for customisation. Currently our units are designed such that manufacturers can perform some of the customisation by themselves. Please contact us for more details.

Q: Where would you normally mount the inverter unit?
A: We have specially designed this inverter unit to be mounted indoors near the distribution unit so that the owner can easily monitor how much power the wind turbine is generating. We have designed the look of the unit to be pleasent and not occupy too much area. The unit has been designed to be very quiet without the need of any fans to disturb the occupants.