I was reading an article in Business 2.0 about a company called Southwest Windpower, which is making wind turbines available to households. Southwest Windpower has created the Skystream 3.7, which is "a sleek 33-foot turbine with 6-foot blades that can work at wind speeds as low as 9 mph (and provide as much as 80 percent of the average household's electricity)." They cost about $13,000.00 each, but they are selling well. The article notes that if the new Congress provides a tax credit of up to 30% of a turbine, these turbines may become even more popular. Certain states, like California, New Jersey and New York already provide tax incentives or rebates for wind power use. According to the article, consumers can even sell excess power to certain utilities. Other companies are capitalizing on this concept by creating batteries that can store excess wind energy for days.

I was excited to read that wind power is finally reaching the point of being accessible to the masses. $13,000.00 seems like a reasonable sum when you could potentially be taking your home off the power grid for good. In addition, you would have the peace of mind of not being a major contributer to global warming. I'll be following Southwest Windpower to see how this concept develops over the next few years. Southwest Windpower's product certainly seems to defy the theory that you need tremendous wind to make wind power worthwhile, given that it can operate at low wind speeds.