First RE System is Planned

Wow! 375 foot, thats a long ways even for 48 volts nominal at only 900 watts. the Alt-E Stores wire sizing calculations would call for nothing less than 3/0 (pronounced three aught) at 3%. 750 foot of 3/0 even at $3.78 per foot would come to $1,475.50 good thing that wind genny is free!
http://wesbellwireandcable.com/THHN/THHN3_0.html
http://howto.altenergystore.com/How-to-Size-Wiring-and-Cabling-for-Your-System/a62/
Check my math though.
900 watts at 48 volts is 18.75 amps
18.75 x 375 = 7031.25
3 x 48 = 144
7031.25 / 144 =  a VDI of 49

Somebody please prove me wrong. Thats just too much!

Sorry Eric if that came across as being facetious. I wanting to have a wind genny but my site is just not suitable enough to make it cost effective.  Among other things, a free standing tower over 100' would have to be constructed. I guess cynicism, prompted by jealousy, came through in my writting.
As for ordinances, the best place to find that out would be your local planning and zoning office. Those type of things can be way different from; state to state, county to county, city to city, town to town, well you get the idea.

If your in a rural agricultural area, you might see silo's. This could give you idea of how high a structure is allowed to be in your vicinity. Geology plays a role. It might be that the ground where you want to plant a tower cannot support or may require additional concrete to support it.
Heights, ground stability, proximity's, restrictions, petitions, permits, etc., etc., these are all the things that your local planning and zoning office will want to address and chances are they may have allready.
Here is an example of something that has been done by the Massachusetts Division of Energy Resources.
http://www.mass.gov/Eoca/docs/doer/renew/model-allow-wind-small.pdf
I can't help but feel that I am telling you a lot of stuff you may already know or have searched and found on the internet... But here it goes anyway. Just in case.
http://www.newfarm.org/features/0604/wind3/index.shtml
http://www.greengold.org/wind/documents/84.htm
http://www.wind-watch.org/news/category/locations/americas/us/wisconsin/

While searching I found several other sites from different states and read through them. My overall impression, for Wisconsin, is that the power companies what to desperately hang on to their monopoly of energy. If this is true, I wouldn't be at all surprised if they (the power companies the want to build megawatt wind farms) are influencing decisions made by law makers concerning small scale privately owned wind genny's in the residential arenas.

As for the PV, take your pick. Apples are Apples. Its of little matter wether its a Delicious Red or a Granny Smith, they are all good to eat. Personally, I perfer the Poly crystalline type. Hot climates may necessitate a higher voltage PV module. The trend would seem to be high voltage and high wattage PV modules and MPPT charge controllers. There seems to be very little information about singular charge controllers that can handle both wind and PV simultaneously unless it comes with a particular wind genny.

Mike,

I have only one quibble with your numbers.�  My chart for #2AWG says the max ohms are .159 and the weight per 1000 feet is 201#.�  Did you jump columns?

In any case the voltage drop using #2 is still 2.23V.

Here's the really funny thing.�  If you download the Southwest Windpower Manual for the Whisper 100 you find they say you can go many more feet with only # 6 or even #8 wire.

http://store.altenergystore.com/mmsolar/others/REVC-3-CMLT-1033-01-Whisper_100_Owner%27sManual.pdf

See Page 9 of 42.

I do not understand.�  Can anyone explain this (what appears to be a) discrepancy?

Eric F.

hi eric f.

 it's great to see that you are trying to nail down these details before just diving in with your wallet. you are sure to find something you missed along the way. but that is the fun of the learning.

 i see the wire run problem as a mixed bowl of fruit. we are attempting to use our dc wire tables for the turbine run. this turbine feed comes all the way to your power room with "three phase wild ac current" and then is sent through a bridge rectifier and changed to ripple dc and then right to the battery bank. we may well see 150vac @ 150hz comming from the turbine...a word of caution here about trying to measure it with a regular multimeter. don't. it took me three meters to learn that one. also you will find that your batteries love that dc ripple charge current until they get to the very top of their charge, then you have to start dumping. the c40 should work out nice for that. and the suggested wire gauge per manual is the way to go.

 for some great wind advice check out paul gipe and the guru of wind hugh piggot.

all the best, dave

also sometimes it's easier to beg for forgivness than to jump through all those permiting hoops. my local inspector was by on another matter and happened to notice my set up. and all he said is that looks nice. your ahj may not feel the same. in any case be sure to follow at least the fall rule. that if it comes down it lands on your property. build strong!

Eric,

I believe that the "Whisper Controller" is a charge controller of sorts. The Whisper Controller and the pv charge controller should be able to connect to the same battery bank if they are the same voltage. Charge controllers for wind turbines usually have a "diversion load" to dump any excess current once the batteries are fully charged since spinning blades in high winds do not turn "off" as easily as pv panels. Heating elements in water heaters make good diversion loads.

Oh, forgot to add that you may not be able to use the same charge controller for wind and solar.  You will need to fuse (or breaker) them each to the power they can put out.  My H40 required a 100 amp fuse and I had only 30-40 amps from solar panels so the breaker size used is 60 amp.

I did not comment on the rest of my system.  I use a Zantrex breaker box (DC250) for all breakers (try getting 200 amp fuse at night on Sunday), and a Prosine 2 inverter for 15 amp service.  The inverter will accept line power (in your case a genn set) and has built in transfer switch.  Two inverters will stack for 240 AC.  This is my setup, if you find those step transformers you could go for 24 volts but something tells me your gonna use a 48 volt inverter.