What about space? According to the windmill company Southwest Windpower, the ideal location for a wind turbine is 20 feet above any surrounding object within a 250-foot radius. You can use a device called an anemometer to measure the wind speed in your backyard over time-you could even make one yourself out of an old plastic Easter egg, once you've eaten the goodies inside.
However, the map of wind resources depicts wind speeds at a height of 50 meters in the air-that's over 160 feet, or 16 stories! And generalizations often don't hold-the average wind speed will depend heavily on the specific conditions at your site.
Department of Energy National Renewable Energy Laboratory As the map shows, the places with the greatest wind resources are typically in the Great Plains, along mountaintops and on the coasts. The DOE produces a map of the wind resources across the United States. To have a successful home wind operation, the average wind speed at your location should average at least nine miles per hour. (You can buy windmills as small as nine feet tall with blades spanning six feet, though most are sized more in the range of 60 feet tall with 23-foot blade diameters.) One new turbine creating buzz in the wind community is the Skystream 3.7, which is applauded for its size (10-foot blades), efficiency at low wind speeds (they can perform well with average annual wind speeds above 12 mph), and relatively low price ($15,000). In going through the checklist, it quickly becomes apparent why we don't all have windmills in our backyards, even though the technology is commercially available. Department of Energy (DOE) suggests a checklist to make sure small wind projects are a right choice for individual homeowners: Is there enough wind? Do you have enough space? Are towers allowed in your area? And finally, how much energy can you produce?
HOME WIND POWER KIT HOW TO
Q: Why can't we install windmills in our backyards and trap the power individually for our personal use? Is the limitation how to store it and feed it into my electrical circuits, or what? Is it cost, or sound pollution to my neighbors, or has a household system just not been developed yet?Īsked by Maria Schmidt, '79, Fort Worth, Texas
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