i would like to create one on a smaller scale. just maybe two or three total but not as extravagent as a farm or anything such, but rather something much smaller that i could use in my townhouse. once again nothing extravagent but enough to power a dishwasher or tv set or something of that sort. also can these turbines be made at home into a smaller scale and can it conserve energy that its not using much like a solar panel?

Hi there,

It sounds to me like you are interested in a small wind turbine! Small wind turbines are often considered to include anything 100 kW or less. We have information about small wind systems on our web site .

According to the US Dept. of Energy, in 2001, an average color TV used 137 kWh of electricity annually, and an average dishwasher used 512 kWh per year.

In a location with a good wind resource, a 10 kW machine could produce around 12,000 kWh in a year, so you are obviously thinking about a very small turbine! (Read about choosing the right turbine for your project here.)

Your comment about a townhouse worries me, however. The effectiveness of any turbine, large or small, has much to do with where it is placed. Turbines need wide open spaces away from buildings and other obstacles. It can be very challenging to find a place in a city where a turbine works well enough to justify the cost! (Some basic information about turbine siting can be found on this web page.)

Finally, while a wind turbine itself can't store excess energy, there are some options, such as battery systems, for storage. Provided your state has proper laws in place, something called "net-metering," where your turbine is connected to the larger grid and you simply sell excess energy back to the power company, can be a better option.

If you have more questions after looking through some of the resources I've mentioned here, please post more questions or feel free to contact us directly!