a couple other factors that you did not mention. is the height of mast you propose to use. and how you intend to guy wire it .

a 2x2x2 block of concrete ie 8 cubic feet at approx. 150 pounds /ftc. 1200 pounds. soooooo , you might use some water barrels. ie. 50 gal at 8 pounds. so three would do it.

more .02's

>Question, why the need for an ultra gnarly heavy weight base/anchor?

I'm not sure. Maybe 2 cubic feet of concrete doesn't qualify as "ultra gnarly"? =] We're planning on a 20' mast, and I guess it's just to have a similar mass at the bottom of the pole (offsetting the weight of the generator itself).

I would personally rather consider a solar panel rather than a wind generator. It seems like a lot less fuss for one thing. The chance for sun on the playa would be something approaching 100%, (although I have to admit that I have never been there). However, I would imagine that the wind would be a lot less predictable, being something like the 'feast or famine' of too much wind or too little.

For one thing, to get the wind generator to work properly, it has to be fairly high off the ground, such as about 20 feet or more. That means bringing in a tower of sorts, as well as erecting this tower it and securing it with guy rope staked to the ground.

You also have to be worried about what will happen if and when this tower fell. Who or what would the tower (and generator) hit if it suddenly came crashing to the ground? So not only would your tower have to be at least 20 feet tall, but you would have to be certain that there would be nothing and nobody around in a 20 foot radius from where the tower was.

However, the thing with wind generators is that you can have TOO MUCH wind, just as you can have TOO LITTLE wind. At a certain wind speed, most wind generators are designed to stop rotating so they don't get damaged in the high winds.

I remember seeing wind farms as I was crossing Minnesota on my way from Ontario, Canada to Sturgis, South Dakota. These wind generators were huge structures, as tall as towers. Only about ten percent of them were working at any given time. I asked the driver why this was, and she told me that they had all been set at different angles to catch the wind from different directions and at different speeds.

Then again, you are probably not trying to power a refrigerator, television and clothes dryer with your wind generator either. I probably sound like a wet blanket with what I am saying now. I suppose the best solution to secure your wind generator would be to secure the pole you would have it mounted on to something very heavy like an RV. You can always use guy ropes and secure it with rebar to the playa floor as well.