As the title suggests, this version of Chelsea Green's original 1999 version expands the scope to include commercial-scale wind turbines used in distributed applications. As such, this book includes wind turbines of all sizes. This edition makes a distinction between large numbers of commercial-scale wind turbines used in central-station power plants, or wind farms, and wind turbines used singly or in small clusters both on and off the grid.

Debunks Fads & Fallacies

Calls for New Renewable Energy Policy in North America

In 1999, Wind Energy Basics introduced micro and mini wind turbines and explained how to install and use them. This version introduces the concept of "community wind" where groups of people invest in large wind turbines that produce commercial quantities of electricity for sale to the grid. While a seemingly novel concept in North America, it is quite common in Denmark, and Germany, and increasingly so in France. In community wind, farmers, small businesses, and groups of community-minded citizens band together to develop-for profit--"their" wind resources. It's as if they're saying, "Renewable energy is far too important to be left to the electric utilities alone. We have a responsibility for our own future. We can and will develop our own wind resources for our own benefit and for the benefit of our communities." By proving that it can be done, Germans and Danes have served as models for us in North America.

 

 

What's New

This version of Wind Energy Basics has been extensively updated to include topics that are of increasing interest to North American consumers and wind energy advocates alike.

• Urban wind. Does it make sense?
• Building integrated wind. Is it real or not?
• Rooftop mounting. Should you avoid it?
• New vertical axis wind turbines. Are they ready?
• Fantasy wind turbines. How to spot them.
• Ducted turbines. Can they deliver?
• Community wind-a not so new way to harness the wind.
• Feed-in Tariffs. Can they power a renewables revolution?

The most significant change is the addition of a new chapter on community wind, and why this can be an exciting option for many who might otherwise struggle to put a small wind turbine in their back yards-or worse, on their roofs. Another departure from the earlier version is a concluding chapter on a policy option that can make all this possible: Advanced Renewable Tariffs and the feed-in tariffs that make them work.

 

Revision of Wind Energy Basics Released

(more on the new book by Paul Gipe)

Wind-Works.org 2009