Wind power is clean, plentiful and the world's fastest growing source of energy. Countries like Germany, Denmark, Spain and India are becoming major users of wind energy. While it has been slower to catch on in the U.S., you can see major wind farms in the American Southwest. But American farmers and rural residents have known for a long time that harnessing the power of the wind makes sense. And if you have the space and vertical clearance, you can also take advantage of wind power to lower your emissions and power bills.

How wind power works

Wind turbines capture the wind's kinetic energy to power a generator that produces electricity. Wind generators have four main parts: blades (also known as rotors), a power shaft, gears and a generator. The wind drives the blades, which turns the shaft, which powers the generator and electricity is produced.

Home wind power systems

Consumers can purchase wind units for home use. There are medium-size units that can fulfill all of the electric needs of a home, or smaller units that can be used as a supplemental power supply. A wind system typically lowers a home's electric bill by 50-90% depending on the size of the system and the wind patterns of the site.

Wind power systems are most practical in rural areas or for consumers with an acre or more of land. But check with your neighbors and local zoning laws – you may be able to set up a small system in a suburban area.

Depending on the size of your site and your energy consumption patterns, you’ll likely need a turbine rated in the 5-15 kilowatt range to make an impact on your energy needs.

As with solar power, depending on where you live, you can either use a “grid-tied" system or a stand-alone system. In a grid-tie system, a home uses a wind power system but the house is still connected to the local power grid. The electricity produced by the wind system that is not used immediately in the home is returned to the power grid. When this happens your electricity meter literally spins backwards as you are passing energy to the grid. You are also building a credit on your power bill. This is called “net-metering." The benefit of the grid-tied system is that it does not include expensive batteries to be installed in your home for the storage of power; the grid acts as the storage system and your home and the grid exchange power as you need and produce it.

A stand-alone system requires greater power-generation capacity and large storage batteries. These systems are significantly more expensive, but they do give you total energy independence.

The most important thing to consider is the average wind speed of your site. In general people living in coastal areas or in the Great Plains of the U.S. are the best candidates for wind power. If you want to measure this yourself, you’ll need a wind-measuring device called an anemometer. But this takes some serious time and dedication. Or you can look at the attached map to estimate the wind power productivity of your location.

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