micro windpower needs more funding and attention

Small Wind Market Ignored by Corporations and Consumers Alike

by Peter Asmus, Renewable Energy Success

Small home-sized wind turbines have not received the financial investment afforded large-scale horizontal axis wind turbines or solar photovoltaics (PV). That's one reason small wind turbines haven't caught on with most consumers.

Typically 1 to 10 kW in size, America pioneered small wind turbine technology. Think back to the old-fashioned small water pumper mills that still spin in many parts of the country, and compare that to the silhouette of the massive structures that Don Quixote battled with in Spain. It was Marcellus Jacobs, born in North Dakota and raised in Montana, who in the 1922 attached a fan assembly from a water pumper to the rear axle of a Model T car to generate electricity from the wind. After selling more than $50 million worth of equipment to people wishing to generate their own power, he closed his doors in the 1950s. Ironically enough, it was FDR's "New Deal" programs that nearly killed the small off-grid wind turbine industry as cheap hydropower was shipped to rural America via an ever-expanding electricity grid. The energy crisis of the mid-70s then gave a fresh push to wind turbines, large and small. Bergey Windpower of Norman, Oklahoma, founded by the father and son team of Karl and Mike Bergey, took small wind technology to the next level in the '80s.

Unlike solar, which has attracted investment capital from corporate giants such as BP, Shell and Sharp, no major corporations have entered the small wind market - yet. In contrast to utility-scale wind turbines and solar PV, which are dominated by European and Japanese companies, over 90 percent of small wind turbines installed in the U.S. are still manufactured by very small companies based here in the U.S.

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