Is Backyard Wind Power Worth It?

eldavojohn wonders: "In the October IEEE Spectrum magazine, I read an article on backyard windmills and their growing feasibility. With the lowest model's price tag, it's about $9,000 and lasts for around 100,000 kilowatt-hours (20 year life), which results in 9 cents per kilowatt-hour. Now, the article mentions that if the market takes off, that price will drop. However, I was wondering what price range the windmills would have to fall to (or the energy rates have to rise to) before I could consider this? Well, the price of the windmills in the article are out of my price range right now. I don't imagine many Americans have $8k-$11k laying around and the current month's rates for energy in my neighborhood are 2.2 cents/kWh for the first 800 kWh and 1.2 cents/kWh after. I was wondering what are your thoughts on being an early adopter of wind energy? Do you think that if enough people bought these windmills, the price per kWh could compete with the local power grid's? Will it ever?"

Comments

Re:Is it also worth the drama?

[sgt scrub]

When I think of windmills I think of the old pink panty joke.

Helmut and Susy were playing in a windmill. There was no wind that day so Helmut suggested they slide down one of the blades into a pile of straw below. Susy worried and asked if Helmut thought she would get here pink panties durty. "No. No.", Helmut assured. So, they carefully climbed onto the blade and started to slide. Sadly after it was too late, there was a sudden gust of wind. Susy was violently tossed from the windmill into a wallow for the pigs. "I got my pink panties dirty!", Susy wailed. "To hell with your pink panties! My balls got caught on a nail!", Helmut replied.