by Rona Fried, Ph.D.
Although many experts believe the biggest advances in the wind industry will be offshore – where the strongest, most consistent winds are and where, in many cases, citizens’ aesthetic concerns can be minimized – my vision for how wind energy can mitigate climate change is for a wind turbine to be on the roof of every building.
Do you remember when every home had a TV antenna on the roof? Imagine a small wind turbine whirring away, working with your solar panels, to provide energy for your home while you sell the excess back to your utility. There’s certainly a major role for ever-larger turbines, but to me, small is beautiful.
Whereas a 300-foot-high turbine in downtown San Francisco would be a problem, small onsite turbines can help customers avoid transmission bottlenecks and reliability issues. They can supplement a building’s electricity supply and can be combined with other forms of renewable energy, such as solar panels.
Smaller turbines can run at slower wind speeds, quietly. And residents aren’t opposed to small turbines the way they are to huge projects such as Cape Wind (off the coast of Cape Cod, Mass.).
There are so many opportunities to place smaller turbines. In the United Kingdom, they’re talking about putting them on the roofs of high-rise buildings. The wind-tunnel effect makes it a great place for wind. Here in the United States, about 100 community wind projects – consisting of a few wind turbines each – shave energy costs and provide additional revenue for farmers, rural landowners and urban municipalities.
Costs for installed turbines range from about $35,000 for a 10-kilowatt system up to $125,000 for 40 kilowatts. The U.S. Department of Agriculture offers renewable energy grants that cover up to 25 percent of a project’s cost, and with low-interest loans increasingly available, a turbine can pay for itself in five years. After that, a rural farmer or homeowner, for example, can earn about $2,000 a year selling excess electricity back to the grid, in addition to dramatically lowering electric bills.
The City Council of Mason City, Iowa, population 28,000, voted unanimously to allow wind turbines in commercial, industrial and residential zones, making it the first town in the state to modify its zoning laws to accommodate small windmills. Minnesota and North Dakota passed laws that cut red tape to encourage small turbines. Michigan amended its law to allow people to sell wind electricity back to utilities. In Massachusetts, schools, universities, businesses and municipalities are erecting small turbines.
Although each project makes only a small difference – generating enough electricity for about 1,000 people – together they add up. About 50 Massachusetts communities are building them, planning for them or exploring their potential.
In addition to lowering energy costs and selling excess power to utilities, municipalities can generate revenue through the sale of renewable energy credits. RECs commoditize the power for trading on the open market. Just one turbine can generate $100,000 a year at current REC prices! And some projects also qualify for federal tax credits.
In Lynn, Mass., for example, the Water and Sewer Commission is spending $3-$4 million to put turbines on the roof of the wastewater plant. Planners estimate they will save $300,000 a year after four to seven years.
The Market Evolves
A handful of companies, such as publicly traded McKenzie Bay International (MKBY.OB), build small turbines. Most, like Bergey Windpower, are privately held.
AeroVironment Inc., Monrovia, Calif., known for its unmanned aircraft technologies, makes turbines that look like large fans in square housings to go on top of flat-roofed commercial buildings such as warehouses or big-box retail stores. The turbines can be clustered to generate more energy and spin even in slow winds of a few miles an hour. Several utilities are testing 1.6 kW building-integrated systems (4, 400-watt turbines) in California and Texas.
Start-up AeroTurbine Inc. makes a 10-foot-long helix-shaped turbine placed inside a cylinder. The turbines run on wind generated from a building’s microclimate – and can be placed in many positions to take advantage of variable wind. The Chicago-based company is negotiating with the city to install the turbines on top of the 650-foot-high Daley Center, under San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge and at other locations.
Windside Wind Turbines of Finland, Windsave Ltd. and Renewable Devices of the United Kingdom, and Ecofys of the Netherlands are among the other companies making small turbines.
Southwest Windpower in Flagstaff, Ariz., recently raised $8 million to bring its small turbine to homes and businesses. CEO Frank Greco estimates that 13 million U.S. homes offer potential sites and a $1 billion market.
The company’s turbine, installed on a 35-ft. tower, includes all the inverters and controllers in the body of the generator, making installation straightforward, while reducing production and installation costs. It connects to standard utility hookups and produces energy at wind speeds as low as 8 miles per hour, providing up to 80% of a household’s electricity. Greco anticipates the retail price to be about $5,500, or about $0.08 per kilowatt-hour without subsidies.
In the future, I can see companies offering a suite of options that aggregate various forms of renewable energy based on customer needs. The American Wind Energy Association estimates that small wind turbines could contribute 3% of the nation’s electric supply by 2020, mitigating climate change and giving us true energy independence.
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Rona Fried, Ph.D., is president of SustainableBusinesscom, the online community
for green business: daily sustainable business and investor news, Green Dream Jobs,
Business Connections and sustainable investing newsletter, Progressive Investor.
This article first appeared in Rona’s “Investing in Clean Energy” column in Solar Today.
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