grid tied wind turbine

Keep it Simple Stupid.

Some utilities won't do the intertie, many only pay their avoided fuel cost for any excess you sell them which is generally about half your cost of small scale generation. A few states mandate net price metering where the utility pays the same for electricity you send to them as what you pay to buy from them.

In my opinion, alternate source home generation only pays to the point of stopping the meter, it doesn't pay to sell power to the utility because your cost per kwh is twice theirs.

Gerald J.

Some shady outfits advertise short towers, but that is wasting your money. You need to get over obsticals like trees, and higher is _always_ better. Windspeed is the name of the game, as power is cubed from windspeed. That multipies _very_ quickly.

As well, tying into the grid is an expensive proposition - you need to match up to the voltage & frequency of the grid. Takes a bit of equipment to match.

Then you need a fail safe disconnect. So you aren't powering up the grid when the grid goes out - backfeeding into linemen trying to work on the 'dead' lines.

Then you need to sell juice back at wholesale costs, not just let the meter turn backwards. So you need a second meter. That is, if your electric co goes along with the plan of buying power from you in the first place.

To pay for those last few bits, you need to produce enough electricity to make it all worth while.

--->Paul