Google + wind power
 

The system sound so simple. What about installation? The price also seems really low.

Google Checks Out The PC of Renewable Energy | Green Day | Fast Company

I like the idea - compact and well distributed could start to make an impact.
personally i live in a small valley - and probably not for me. Neighbors near the ridge - maybe...

comments about bird hits always make me smirk..
makes me think about the WINDEX commercials.. i wonder why the Enviro's are not after WINDEX - you see the birds hit windows in the commercials!!!

Steve

if you could get a rated out put on those VAWT (vertical axle wind turbine) then they might be worth getting, but so far no one has gotten them to produce an amount of power that shows up on a meter... they have to have this basic rating to get any type of government money that shows that they can produce electricity in real life, not happening so far.
I can light up a house full of LEDs on 20 watts, a single room worth of CFLs, that is not much, $150 worth of solar?

Good point Ryland. As we all know, VAWTs aren't nearly as efficient as HAWTs too.

Steve, yeah, the bird strike complaint always amuses me too. How hard would it be though to put a "cage" around one of these. It could be made out of incredibly thin wire that doesn't affect the wind speed, but would prevent any birds from being able to fly into it. Can't imagine it would cost all that much.

Although, in most locations, the vast majority of the time it's not going to be moving fast enough to hurt a bird that flies into it anyways....

First off, a cage around a wind thingy (it's not a turbine, or generator in my mind unless it works) like this would be as big of a waste of money as the machine it's self, unless you just want something to look at and at that point why would you want a cage around it?
Real wind turbines kill about the same number of birds per year as a single window in your house, and that is about the same number as die from running in to trees, about one per year, a cage is not going to stop these birds, it will just give them a larger area to run in to, if you really love birds you would block off your windows and cut down all the trees.

Although it is really simple and someone said wind power can reduce home power bills by 80%, you had better use it as a backup system. Not reply on it 100%.

Birds are not stupid -- they can see and hear this thing turning. I think they would hit "tiny wires", though.

How many birds die from air pollution from smokestacks?

Why do you say that? did you have wind power fail to power your home or are you repeating what you have been told?
I grew up in a house that was powered by 100% wind, my parents currently live in a house that is about 40% wind, 50% solar, but they also have two fridges, well pump, tv's, computers, welder, wood working shop, grow lights for starting garden plants, chicken coop with heated water dish, I plug my electric car in when I stop to visit, they are hooked to the grid as a back up but the fee for reading the meter is as much as the bill for the power they use and if the wind turbine was on a taller tower it could power more of their house but the tower they used was one they already had and it is to short for the ground clutter they have.

Thanks Ryland!
But i have another question How fast does your home area wind speed?Someone told me that in order to let the wind turbines work well, the wind speed should be at least 10 mph. If the wind speed less than this value, Do you have some good solutions? thanks