Residential Wind: What Are The Trends?

Residential wind systems are becoming increasingly attractive to the average homeowner. While these wind devices were once relegated to farmland and pumping applications in rural Texas and Oklahoma, now they are seen even on roofs in big cities.

But, where is this technology going?

Will residential wind options continue to get cheaper?

Here are the biggest trends I see as all but inevitable:

Vertical Axis Wind Turbines on Roofs - roofs are probably the biggest untapped resource for locating residential wind devices on the planet. So many cities have lots and lots of available space to install residential wind turbine systems and the only thing holding things back now are local restrictions and those are loosening rapidly.

Lower prices brought on by tougher competition - Chinese wind turbine production is leading the way. There are a plethora of new devices out there made in countries with low labor rates like China that winning big in the market now and will likely continue until oil prices drive shipping prices too high to manufacture there any longer.

More government subsidies for purchase of a residential wind device - let's face it - we don't do things very well on our own. We need some government intervention to subsidize the wind industry while economies of scale are slowly taking hold.

Hybrid wind and solar systems - using both wind and solar energy at the same time is becoming a very popular concept. Many locations that have good options for wind also have really strong options for solar energy collection as well. There is just no reason to choose between renewable energy sources if you have the choice to use more than one.As these trends continue, we will see them begin to virally proliferate across the country and the globe.

Because of dwindling fossil fuel supplies, we are all in the mode of looking for ways that we can augment our power consumption with sources that do not go as fossil fuels do.As prices come down we will see more and more people get involved in some until critical mass is reached. When that happens we will start seeing domestic wind turbines with super-low cut-in speeds power about everything in the environment.

I would like to reiterate one trend that I feel is key to getting more folks off the grid - hybrid systems because they break down the barrier separating renewable technologies now by combining both of these energy technologies in one package. There's just no reason to make a decision on one of these when you can get a package that includes both.

Summarizing - the future of residential wind has never looked brighter. As cut-in speeds come falling down, the practicality of owning a home wind power generator is getting more and more clear, no matter where you live.

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