subject: 10 Kw Wind Turbine: 1 Big Reason You Need One [print this page] Why on earth would anyone get a 10 kW wind turbine when, in all likelihood, your home power requirement is less than 2 kW? I mean, why spend way more than you need to get renewable energy at your house?
The reason for doing this is the concept of net metering, or selling power that you make back to your power company. In other words, make as much power as you can and sell the excess to your utility. But, you say, I am not in the power business, how would this work for me?
Good question. This is the way it would work... You install 10 kW of wind power generation at your house. Even though you only need 2 kW, let's say, you want to sell the power you don't need back to your utility. Have the utility install what is called a net meter at your house. This will allow them to deduct any excess power you create and export from your house back to the power grid, or the interconnecting wires that constitute the power delivery mechanism in your state. While all utilities do not have net metering programs yet, many do and you just need to check with your utility to find out.
Buying a wind turbine kit and hooking it up to a net meter is really a win-win for all involved. It must be noted that the utility is not paying you the same price for the power that you pay when you buy it from them. What they are paying you is their avoided cost, or what it costs them to make the power they sell you. They call it their system lamda or what it costs the utility to make the next kWh of power they generate. I say is win-win because the utility wins too, because they are buying power from you at the same cost as what it costs them to make it and then they get to mark it up to sell to your neighbors, just like they do with the power they make in their power generation plants.
The bottom line is that the 10 kW wind turbine and even larger home wind turbines are making making more and more sense to homeowners. While it of course still really matters where you locate such a turbine, it is a given that this method of power dispersed generation will be the wave of the future and serve as the model for generation of electricity from here forward, regardless of the source of energy used.
