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Home Wind-Power Turbines Make Headway

Posted by samzenpus on from the the-answer-is-blowing-in-the-wind dept.

Pickens writes "Wind turbines, once used primarily for farms and rural houses far from electrical service, are becoming more common in heavily populated residential areas as homeowners are attracted to ease of use, financial incentives and low environmental effects. Experts on renewable energy say a convergence of factors, political, technical and ecological, is causing a surge in the use of residential wind turbines, especially in the Northeast and California. "Back in the early days, off-grid electrical generation was pursued mostly by hippies and rednecks, usually in isolated, rural areas," said Joe Schwartz, editor of Home Power magazine. "Now, it's a lot more mainstream." Some of the new "plug and play" systems can be plugged directly into a circuit in the home electrical panel and homeowners can use energy from the wind turbine or the power company without taking action. Schwartz says that even with the economic benefits, it can take 20 years to pay back the installation cost. "This isn't about people putting turbines in to lower their electric bills as much as it is about people voting with their dollars to help the environment in some small way," he said."

3 of 163 comments (clear)

  1. Hmmm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    This has been bugging me for a while, but do niggers really have horse-sized dicks?

    1. Re:Hmmm by a11 · · Score: -1, Troll

      this very likely means you are gay. get trashed and roll some x or do a line and see if it feels good to hold a dick in your mouth. it's the only way you'll know now. it's better than finding out when you're in you 40s and have kids.

  2. Re:How green is it? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    "Never trust the words of someone who is looking to sell you something."

    Yeah, like a "clean" coal plant. Bwahahaha! Clean coal! That's hilarious.

    Coal-fired power plants (yes kids, even the "clean" kind) spew more radioactive waste into the air than any nuclear reactor would be allowed to... to say nothing of all the other waste.

    Coal power is one of the worst forms of energy generation... and yet it's the most common in the US. But hey, let's pay attention to the right-wing nuts and their conspiracy theories about all those evil scientists trying to get us onto renewable energy which doesn't fund terrorists.

    In Conservative AmeriKKKa, the terrorist is funded BY YOU! What a country!