I'm a trained and certified site assessor for small wind systems and I usually recommend a tower at least 120 feet tall, and seldom find a site in western Wisconsin that is actually windy enough to justify the expense of a wind turbine, especially in recent years with the falling price of PVs. My personal wind turbine needs annual inspection and grease at the tower top--and it was hard work putting 500 pounds of machine on top of a tower. It made sense 35 plus years ago when we first installed it to power an off-grid home, but back them PVs were very expensive.
The real problem with any and all VAWTs is that they are never installed high enough to get powerful winds. People that favor vertical machines don't understand how wind works. A turbine of any kind on a short tower is like putting your water wheel or water turbine at the shore in the shallows because it is easier to get to .
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