Home & Farm Sized Wind

Home and farm sized wind energy uses the energy in wind for practical purposes like generating electricity, charging batteries, or pumping water. These smaller wind turbines are usually installed behind the electricity meter at homes, farms, small businesses, schools, and other community buildings. This page has some of the best information for home and farm sized wind projects, which usually are defined as those that have a name plate capacity of 100 kilowatts or less.

Contents

Quick connect
Project Planning CERTs blog posts
Workshops & Seminars CERTs case studies
Industry Information and Policy CERTs presentations
Case Studies CERTs reports

Project Planning

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Small Wind Electric Systems: A Minnesota Consumers Guide – US DOE Wind Powering America Program
An unbiased and easy to understand introduction to small wind systems for residents, farmers, and small business owners who want to install a small wind turbine to supply enough energy for their home or business.

Small Wind & Solar Installers in Minnesota – CERTs
There are a number of solar power and small wind installers in Minnesota, and CERTs has put together a map of them so that you can look for those nearest you.

Hiring a Renewable Energy Dealer – Richard Perez, Home Power Magazine and the Minnesota Department of Commerce (Updated January 2009)
Every renewable energy system begins its working life as a pile of equipment. Preparation, planning, and proper installation are all essential if the system is to be a success. You can do it yourself or you can get help from an installing dealer. This article informs you about what to expect from your dealer. And this article informs you about what you may miss if you decide to do it yourself. This is a reprinting of What to Expect From Your RE Dealer with an introduction written by the Minnesota Department of Commerce that lists questions you should have prepared to ask any renewable energy consultant before committing to hire them to on your project.

Wind Turbine Buyer’s Guide – Mick Sagrillo and Ian Woofenden, Home Power Magazine, June/July 2007
This is a partial update to the highly acclaimed article Apples & Oranges: Choosing a Home Sized Wind Generator also by Mick Sagrillo. It is a must read for anyone considering the purchase of a small wind system for their home, business or farm. It covers general considerations for purchasing a small wind system and specifics of some of the most common wind turbine models available in the United States.

Apples & Oranges: Choosing a Home Sized Wind Generator – Mick Sagrillo, Home Power Magazine
Small wind systems can cost many thousands of dollars, in most cases even more than your family car. Would you buy a new car without first researching the model you want? Likewise would you consider spending thousands of dollars on a small wind system without doing research on the supplier of the turbine and the history of the machine? This article is the consumer reports of small wind turbine models. Published in 2002, the article is a bit dated, but it is still a great primer on what to consider when purchasing a small wind system.

Small Wind Toolbox – Mick Sagrillo, Renew Wisconsin
Mick Sagrillo is the small wind guru. In his small wind toolbox he opens his head to share some of the most useful advice on small wind systems that exists. Once you understand the basics behind installing a personal wind system visit this website to find the nitty-gritty details you need to install a successful project from properly siting the machine on your property to capture the most wind possible to advice on how to approach your insurance company to have the turbine and system included on your home-owners policy. Some of the information in this toolbox is specific to Wisconsin but a lot of the information can be directly related to installations in other states.

Small Wind Energy Guide: Kandiyohi County, MN – By Kandiyohi County and City of Willmar Economic Development Commission, Financial support from CERTs, among others (2007)
Most everything you need to know about getting a small wind project on the ground in Kandiyohi County, MN is contained in this document. This document will also be helpful to those outside Kandiyohi who want to work on small wind project development.

Residential Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Incentives in Minnesota – Office of Energy Security
This one-page document is a handy overview of all incentives offered by the state of Minnesota for residential energy efficiency and renewable energy projects. It includes links to more information.

Public Wind Resource Data and Supporting Resources

  • State Wind Resource Maps – US DOE, Wind Powering America Program
  • Raw Wind Data from Hundreds of Sites Across the Great Planes States – University of North Dakota, Planes Organization for Wind Energy Resources
  • Minnesota WRAP Report – Minnesota Department of Commerce: The Wind Resource Analysis Program (WRAP) Report of data collected from wind monitoring sites sponsored by the Energy Division of the Minnesota Department of Commerce. This report includes data for years 1995 through 2001.
  • Small Wind Economic Model – US DOE, Wind Powering America, NREL: The Small Wind Economic Model is a spreadsheet tool that can help you analyze the economics of a small wind electric system and decide whether wind energy will work for you.
  • Database of State Incentives for Renewable Energy: A one stop shop for existing policies that are designed to spur renewable energy and energy efficiency development on both the state and national level. This site is where to go to find incentives and policies in your state. It is regularly updated by experts in renewable energy policy and provides descriptions of how each policy is being implemented in an easy to read format with links to higher level information.
  • Small Wind Companies, Consultants, and Installers in the Midwest – Windustry: Windustry has a searchable database of the small wind industry in the Midwest that can aid in planning projects, writing grants, supplying equipment and much more.
  • Small Wind Turbine Manufacturers – American Wind Industry Association: Certified or qualified by recognized agencies as meeting established standards and recommended business practices and/or determined by AWEA’s Small Wind Turbine Committee as commercially available with multiple publicly accessible operational installations in the U.S. If the turbine you are considering buying isn’t on this list you should thoroughly research the company before committing to purchase a machine to make sure that they have a product worth purchasing.

Workshops & Seminars

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Midwest Renewable Energy Association (MREA)
This Wisconsin-based organization that promotes renewable energy and sustainable living offers a small wind installers certification program, regular installation workshops working with small turbines in the filed, and holds an annual small wind meeting of industry members and advocates in conjunction with the annual Energy Fair. This is the place to get hands dirty working with small wind systems.

North Carolina Wind Energy – Appalachian State University, Boone, NC
Beech Mountain is one of only a few small wind turbine test facilities in the North America. Visit this website to find out when their next small wind installation and maintenance workshop will be held and to see some great views of small wind systems in action. This program is a little ways from the Midwest but if you can make the trip to North Carolina for one of their workshops it’s well worth it.

Industry Information and Policy

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Minnesota Renewable Energy Incentives – State Energy Office
A cheat sheet of Minnesota incentives for renewable energy projects, including wind.

Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC) – Small Wind Energy
Visit this site to hear the latest news on small wind energy policy, technical issues, important conferences, workshops and meetings. Sign up for their small wind monthly e-news letters and find out more information about the Small Wind Certification Corporation. If you want to stay on the pulse of small wind energy in the United States this website is your stethoscope.

American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) – Small Wind Resources
The trade association for the wind industry has a branch dedicated to national and state level policy development to help more small/home and farm sized wind systems get installed. Visit this site to learn about the small wind industry, case studies from successful installations, benefits of small wind systems, and what you can do to help support policy that is pro-small wind systems.

Case Studies

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CERTs Wind Energy Case Studies

Other Case Studies

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Home & Farm Sized Wind