{"id":26248,"date":"2023-05-11T09:40:53","date_gmt":"2023-05-11T07:40:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.victronenergy.com\/blog\/?p=26248"},"modified":"2024-09-16T16:46:19","modified_gmt":"2024-09-16T14:46:19","slug":"bright-future-for-greens-ledge-lighthouse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.victronenergy.com\/blog\/2023\/05\/11\/bright-future-for-greens-ledge-lighthouse\/","title":{"rendered":"Bright future for Greens Ledge Lighthouse"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Greens Ledge Lighthouse off the coast of Rowayton and Darien, in Long Island Sound, Connecticut USA was proposed as a navigation aid in 1889 to help mariners through the west entrance to Norwalk Harbor, in the maritime approaches to New York City.<\/p>\n

It was constructed at the western end of a long and dangerous shoal extending from Sheffield Island and first lit in 1902. In 1933, more than 30,000 tons of sea defence was added to the ‘riprap’ foundation using rocks excavated from the foundations of Radio City Music Hall – under construction at that time.<\/p>\n

Eventually the lighthouse fell into disuse and in a deteriorated condition was bought by the Pettee family for $150,000 at auction in 2016. They donated it to the Greens Ledge Light Preservation Society<\/a> – a nonprofit organisation established to bring the lighthouse back into operation.<\/p>\n

Today, more than one hundred years after its inauguration, Greens Ledge Light – 41\u00b0 02′ 30″ N \/ 73\u00b0 26′ 38″ W Characteristic: Al WR 12s – beams out once again as an aid to navigation.<\/p>\n

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Having restored and stabilised the tilting structure which stands 100 feet above the sea, the lighthouse has been repainted. The accommodation, storage and machinery room is immaculate, and a desalination and water treatment plant have been installed, powered by an off-grid solar and wind energy installation.<\/p>\n

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Off-shore, off-grid energy.<\/p><\/div>\n

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The lights’ unique accommodation.<\/p><\/div>\n

Posting on the Victron Energy user-forum Victron Community pages<\/a> in March, Alex Pettee said:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Having used these forums for the research\/planning, I wanted to share our successful experience with adding a 400W Wind Turbine (Primus Air Silent X) to our Victron-based solar power system and enabling remote monitoring capabilities via the Cerbo GX<\/a>\u00a0 (the Victron communication and control device) and the internet based remote management platform VRM<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

We installed this on Greens Ledge Lighthouse\u00a0which is about 1 mile off the coast of Norwalk, Connecticut.<\/em><\/p>\n

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We have about 3kWh of solar capacity and wanted to add a wind turbine to help provide supplemental power in the winter months, given our abundance of wind resource.<\/em><\/p>\n

To enable remote monitoring, we used a SmartShunt<\/a> configured as a DC Energy Meter. We initially set it to “Wind Turbine” but this did not show up on VRM (it was only accessible via the VictronConnec<\/a>t app and Remote Console).<\/em><\/p>\n

When changed to “PV Charger” it showed up on VRM alongside the solar panels, and this has been a good setup for us. We’re able to see real-time production in VRM, see historical production via a device widget in VRM<\/a>, and track the cumulative output via the VictronConnect app.<\/em><\/p>\n

Production-wise – we’ve been monitoring it for about 2-3 weeks and are on pace to produce about 20kWh for the month. It has a steep power curve, so the vast majority of production comes when winds are in the 20-30mph range. We produced about 3-4kWh in a 24-hour period when we had ideal conditions.<\/em><\/p>\n

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The Greens Ledge Light off grid system comprises the following components:<\/p>\n