Community
Community-Owned wind in your town?
Hull's 1st wind turbine is owned by the Town. Hull has the good fortune to have a long-standing municipal light department, which serves as the local electric supplier. Your community has several options if there isn't a locally owned electric utility.
The starting point is wind speed measurement. An airport or a wind map is your first reference, but a measurement for a year above the trees and other obstacles will be required to calculated the true economic viability: More about economics.
A town or school can own a wind turbine and sell the surplus power in a few different ways. Mike Jacobs (mike_windpower@yahoo.com) has some suggestions: More about owning a Turbine.
Wind Co-ops are successful in Europe and now in Ontario, in part because the legal systems support creating new co-ops. Wind turbines are now owned in the U.S. by existing co-ops.
- Wind Co-ops are successful in Europe
- Wind Co-ops are successful in Ontario
- Wind Co-ops are successful in the U.S.