Wind Power for Home & Business: Renewable Energy for the 1990s and Beyond

Wind works. It's reliable. It's economical. It makes environmental sense. And it's here now. Wind machines are not tomorrow's technology. Whether it's on a giant wind farm in California, in a small village in Morocco, or in the backyard of a Kansas wheat farmer, wind energy works today in a variety of applications around the world. You too can put this renewable resource to work. The following chapters explain how to go about doing just that: how to select and install the small wind power systems on the market today.

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	Wind Power for Home & Business: Renewable Energy for the 1990s and Beyond (Real Goods Independent Living Book) by Paul Gipe Paperback (1993)
A comprehensive guide to using wind to power private houses and small businesses and farms. Describes and illustrates the wide range of systems now commercially available; suggests criteria for citing; includes equations for figuring out the power potential of various sizes in various conditions; and discusses legal and safety issues. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc.

Wind technology has come a long way since the mid-1970s when the only wind turbines available were 1930s-era machines salvaged from ranchers on the Great Plains. During the past decade wind technology has come of age with the development of advanced small wind turbines. These rugged yet extremely simple designs have greatly improved the reliability and performance of small wind machines. But as you'll see in the chapters ahead, wind machines are not for everyone.

To use the wind successfully you must have a good site, have enough wind, and select the right machine. You also need something else. Using wind energy takes courage. Wind machines are not cheap, and whether you install it yourself or contract a dealer to do it, the installation of a wind machine is an undertaking fraught with risk and uncertainty. At some point, after considering all the pros and cons, a decision must be made that only you can make. You must weigh the options, then act. The people who use wind energy are prudent, but they're doers.

People use wind machines for many reasons: economic, environmental, and philosophical. The knowledge that you're saving money -- in some cases earning it -- is often sufficient reward for plunging into wind energy. Yet for many there's more to it than that. Windmills have fascinated us for centuries and will continue to do so. Like campfires or falling water, they're mesmerizing, indeed, entrancing. People respond almost instinctively. Few escape the excitement created by a sleek turbine whirring in the wind.

Working with the wind is more than just a means to cheap electricity. It becomes a way of life, a way of living in closer harmony with the world around us. Harnessing the wind for energy enables us to regain some sense of responsibility for meeting our own needs, and for reducing our impact on the environment. By generating our own electricity cleanly and with a renewable resource we can reduce the need for distant power plants and their attendant ills.

A "lucid and readable treatment" of wind turbine noise . . . an "excellent treatment of where the technology stands today for planners, wind farm operators, manufacturers and homeowners. . ." The explanation of "sound power levels is one of the clearest I have ever read . . . this book will make a major contribution to the " development of wind energy in a responsible manner.
Neil Kelley, authority on wind turbine noise with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's Wind Technology Division

Wind Energy Technology is a detailed study of our understanding of the wind and its conversion into useful energy. The book goes beyond this to examine the planning of an entire wind project. In keeping with the aims of the series, it considers economic and environmental issues and how a wind farm connects into the electricity network. It covers mainly horizontal-axis machines, although brief reference is made to vertical-axis machines. The book is divided into two parts. Part A deals with wind turbine theory and its application; Part B is concerned with project assessment and engineering. The publisher, John Wiley & Sons