Posted by Casey Williams on September 17th, 2008

The idea of enabling homeowners to generate power from wind is blowing around Albemarle County.  Recent articles in the Daily Progress (http://www.dailyprogress.com/cdp/news/local/article/wind_turbines_soon_a_reality_in_albemarle/27501/) and C-ville weekly (http://c-ville.com/index.php?cat=1990309083055403&act=post&pid=12171509083838512) announce that the County is considering changing the zoning rules to let residents put up wind turbines to power their own houses, barns and other buildings. 

Rising energy costs, advances in turbine technology, financial incentives, and low environmental effects are making wind turbines more attractive to homeowners across the country.  Small-scale residential wind turbines started popping up about three years ago when new technology made it possible to feed electricity back to the grid – or, perhaps more importantly, to easily draw electricity from the power company if the wind wasn’t blowing. 

According to the American Wind Energy Association, the federal government introduced wind energy incentives after the oil crisis of the late 1970s to help drive large-scale turbine use, but the federal government does not currently offer tax credit for residential-scale wind energy (as it does for residential solar applications).  A number of states provide incentive programs, but Virginia is not currently one of them.   

Some states have also enacted net metering laws that require utilities to buy excess power made by a residential turbine at retail prices.  Power companies in Virginia currently provide credit to customers for the power they generate.  The credit can roll over from month to month, but is zeroed out at the end of the year.  If Virginia power companies bought and re-sold clean energy generated by residential customers at a higher rate, higher than the charge for power from coal plants, they could improve the economics of owning small renewable energy sources and make clean power a profitable business for the homeowner and power company.  

Wind powering activities and resources in Virginia are featured on the following web site: http://www.eere.energy.gov/windandhydro/windpoweringamerica/astate_template.asp?stateab=va.  A complete list of incentives for renewable energy and efficiency in Virginia is provided here: http://www.dsireusa.org/library/includes/map2.cfm?CurrentPageID=1&State=VA&RE=1&EE=1

If the zoning barriers to residential turbines are removed, ecological concerns, more than the potential for cost savings may drive many new residential turbine installations.  Of course, how much a residential turbine helps the environment or saves money depends largely on the wind.  

Filed under: Green Building, Nature/Environment