Kestrel Announces MCS Certification

Date: 27 August 2012

We are thrilled to announce that the Kestrel e400nb 3.5kW small wind turbine is the first of its type to be MCS UK certified.

It is therefore UK Government approved and qualifies for the Feed-In Tariff (FIT).
The FIT scheme allows the turbine owner to be paid for the electricity it produces. The current rate is 28p (R3.70) per kWh. The Kestrel e400nb is MCS certified to produce 3922kWh per year at 5m/s giving an income to the owner of £1098 (R14,511)/year. s

The Kestrel e400nb 3.5kW 250V is verified by design to be a Class 1 wind turbine. The MCS is an independent product certification scheme that is supported by the UK Government Department of Energy and Climate Change and the MCS Steering Group.

As a result of MCS certification the Kestrel wind turbine has also been conditionally registered in the US with the North American Small Wind Certification Council (SWCC) 

The US government and state incentives to install wind energy in the US include tax credits, interest free loans and FIT schemes. The MCS certification is also sited by many European countries as a benchmark of robust quality, performance and safety.

The Kestrel e400nb wind turbine is manufactured by Kestrel Renewable Energy which is owned by Eveready South Africa. The product is one of a range of small wind turbines made in the Eveready factory in Port Elizabeth.

The Kestrel e400nb is rated at 3.5kW and being a high quality machine, has a mass of 250kg with a blade rotor diameter of 4m. Electricity produced by the turbine is processed by an electronic inverter and fed into the grid. The electricity supply is preferentially wind power and any shortfall during peak demand is supplied by the grid. The end users’ energy bill is therefore reduced by the amount of wind energy harvested.