Can be Available With Advanced Technology and Designs

It was only recently that a census was done in the US on residential wind power. It was revealed that nearly 17 million American homes are ideal for using a wind power system.

Wind Power Statistics

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At the end of 2008, worldwide nameplate capacity of wind-powered generators was 121.2 gigawatts (GW). Wind power produces about 1.5% of electricity that is worldwide produced, and as you can imagine is growing rapidly, having doubled in the three years between 2005 and 2008. Numerous countries have achieved relatively high levels of wind power penetration (wind energy “penetration” refers to the fraction of energy produced by wind compared with the total available generation capacity), such as 19% of stationary electricity production in Denmark, 11% in Spain and Portugal, and 7% in Germany and the Republic of Ireland in 2008.  Did you knew that as of May 2009, eighty countries around the world are using wind power on a commercial basis?.

Residential Wind Power “Small Scale”

Small-scale wind power is the name given to wind generation systems with the capacity to produce up to 50 kW of electrical power. Detached communities, that may otherwise rely on diesel generators can use residential wind power to displace diesel fuel consumption.

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Individuals can purchase or create their own residential wind power or eliminate their dependence on grid electricity for economic or other reasons, or if they are green conscious, reduce their carbon footprint. Wind turbines have been used for residential wind power generation in conjunction with battery storage over many decades in remote areas all over the world.

Grid-connected wind turbines may use grid energy storage, substituting purchased energy with local production when available.

Off-grid system users can either adapt to intermittent power or use batteries, photovoltaic (solar panels) or diesel systems to supplement the wind turbine. In urban locations, where it is difficult to obtain predictable or large amounts of wind energy. Little is known about the actual wind resource of towns and cities, smaller systems may still be used to run low-power equipment. Equipment such as parking meters or wireless Internet gateways may be powered by a residential wind power turbine that charges a small battery, replacing the need for a connection to the power grid.

A new Carbon Trust study into the potential of residential wind power “small scale” wind energy has found that small wind turbines could provide up to 1.5 terawatt hours (TW·h) per year of electricity (0.4% of total UK electricity consumption), saving 0.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (Mt CO2) emission savings. This is based on the assumption that 10% of households would install turbines at costs competitive with grid electricity, around 12 pence (US 19 cents) a kWh.

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How it works

Installed on top of a very tall tower, wind energy is collected for transforming it into electricity. The output from the turbine is tuned to feed the wiring in your home. As I said earlier, to be of use, wind speed has to be around 10 miles an hour on a continuous basis. Both the wind turbine and the utility serve your home and with the intensity of the wind, the output of the turbine increases.
Your needs from the utility would gradually go down as you use up more residential wind power. Turbine output will go up with the speed of the wind and there will be a proportionate decrease in your power bills. The surplus power that you produce after using up at home can be sold to the utility. These are automatically done without the help of traditional batteries and systems.
A typical American home requires an average of 800 kW hours electricity a month. If your wind speed is 10 miles an hour which is the minimum required, you would need a wind turbine of 5-15 kilowatts to generate residential wind power.

There are many manufacturers in the US selling turbines with a diameter of 23 feet for home users for installing on 100 foot towers.
But then again, you need to reside in the country as setting up a wind turbine is not possible in small lot suburban homes or in city neighborhoods. You would need at least an acre of spare land for the tower to be put up. You can also avail of tax rebates that are applicable in certain designated areas. Usually some people are worried about the noise that turbines can generate.
But nowadays there are more improved turbines where the noises of the blade are less and they are more efficient and durable. Many wind turbine makers feel that advances in technology would make more aesthetic looking and cost friendly systems for generating residential wind power.

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