Has Affordable, Efficient Rooftop Wind Power Arrived?

Has the technology finally advanced to allow for effective and efficient use of wind energy at the site-specific level--at the home or commercial building level?

In a recent article in Popular Mechanics, revolutionary design of 'small-scale' wind turbines may at last answer the question of whether wind energy can be efficiently applied throughout the United States.

Wind energy can be part of the energy mix, but it has to be technologically viable throughout the entire United States. With the addition of site-specific turbines at the household and commercial building level, the large structures required for wind farms can be strengthened and one big negative reduced to a manageable issue, which is the remoteness required to construct wind turbine farms--those large farms that can create threats to birds and the visual asthetic of the countryside. With these, wind energy is decentralized, diversified, and deliverable at the site where the turbine is constructed--the home or the office building.

Used as an off-set, it empowers individual homeowners and businesses to potentially accept carbon credits, while reducing the electrical bill. This is conservation and efficiency at its best in practical application.

Please read the following excerpt from the Popular Mechanics online article:

Of the 10,500 small wind turbines installed last year, 99 percent were attached to giant constructed towers in rural areas. Rooftop wind turbines—constituting 1 percent of the market—have a huge potential in urban and suburban areas. But the products, which are heavy, noisy and require permanently attaching wind-catching blades to homes, have not yet caught on. One inventor thinks his unique turbine is just what the market is looking for. Are rooftop turbines set to take off?

Small-scale wind turbines are a $156 million industry with impressive growth numbers; the 10,500 sold last year constituted a nearly 70 percent increase for the industry. The benefits of such home home wind systems are numerous: instant independence from the grid, payback periods that can be as little as five years (with an existing subsidy), and demonstrating that 20 percent wind power—the government's stated goal for the country's energy mix for 2030—can be achieved by any individual in less than a year. On the other hand, if you live in an urban or suburban area, wind turbines are likely to be more trouble than they are worth.

Up above the rooftops—and, often, treetops—wind flows are relatively unimpeded, according to the American Wind Energy Association's small-wind advocate, Ron Stimmel. But "wind behaves very differently near built structures," Stimmel says, because houses and other buildings cause a lot of turbulence at roof level. If you live in or near a metropolitan area, however, installing a tower is likely not an option. Either you won't have the square footage or local regulations prohibit erecting tall structures. "This is why there's a lot of interest in selling roof turbines," Stimmel says. But vibrations, sound, price and the complexity of installation has left this market mostly untapped: Nearly 99 percent of small wind turbines installed today are attached to a tower, with just 1 percent constituting rooftop rigs. "It's an appealing option," Stimmel says, "but unless it's done very carefully, there are a lot of obstacles."

Read the complete article here.