Residential Wind Turbine Introduced at WINDPOWER 2009
May 9th, 2009 by Greenist
Flagstaff Firm Announces Newest Household Wind Turbine
Southwest Windpower, the world’s largest manufacturer of small wind turbines, announced their newest residential wind turbine at the 
WINDPOWER 2009 conference. Thanks to a $10 million investment from GE, the company was able to assemble Skystream, a 2.4 kilowatt generating wind turbine which may help cut energy costs significantly for single-family homes by supplying anywhere from 40 to 90 percent of renewable electricity. The technology is open to homeowners with a 4-5 year payback, relying upon how ideal the site is for wind and how excessive existing energy bills are. President Obama’s package also includes a 30 percent renewable energy credit for those who invest in residential wind power.
Darrin Russell of Southwest Windpower boasts that, although the $14,000 price tag may be an issue, the benefits from installing a household wind turbine are well worth the up-front expenditure. “It’s nice watching the [electricity] meter go backward. Sometimes it gets going pretty fast when the wind blows hard.” Russell said. He also made it clear that, with federal tax credit and state rebates, there is going to be much more cash coming in than flowing out after the initial installation. Russell asserts that after the first month of turbine usage, his energy bill was zero – a breath of fresh air from standard electricity charges. Unfortunately, municipal laws often condition that one-half acre of land is needed to construct wind turbines in residential zoning areas, probably due to neighbors not too enthused about viewing or hearing a large wind turbine next door.
Despite current state laws, GE spokesperson Kevin Skillern senses huge potential for small-scale wind energy: “The market is currently just $100 million in total sales, but has been growing 40 to 50 percent a year for a handful of years. What we see is really a transition point where the combination of stimulus programs and technology advancements make this a highly economic purchase for nearly half of the U.S. population.” Wind energy installations have soared from $3 billion in 2005 to $17 billion in 2008 and are projected to decrease to $13 billion this year, according to Reuters. The wind industry is eager to receive a government-backed security that would require 25 percent of electricity generated in the United States be produced using renewable energy by the year 2025. As of April 2009, U.S. wind power installation capacity exceeds 28,000 megawatts – enough to supply over 8 million households with green renewable energy and evade C02 emissions by over 50 million tons annually.
Check out the demo video here: Skystream 3.7 Compact Residential Wind Turbine
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