Most parts of California are not windy enough to consider investing in wind turbines. Here in Santa Cruz county we have only a few small niches that could support a wind generator.

Please check out the wind maps below or at http://www.energy.ca.gov/maps/wind.html    

click images to enlarge

Bear in mind that any wind turbine will be more effective the higher it is off the ground and that swept rotor area(blade size and surface area) determines output. Beware the cute little units with the 20 foot tower kits, they are for the most part a joke. A reasonable tower would be at least 45 feet tall and 60 foot would be even better. The one thing I have noticed when customers enquire about wind is the general stubbornness to accept the wisdom of those in the industry. These people will insist that they have tons of wind at their site and yet they cant handle the thought of a 45foot tower in the backyard.I have seen heard their arguments time and again and yet I can point to a number of wind turbine installations in this county that are sitting out of commission because they didn’t live up to hopes and aren’t even turned on. A steady breeze of 10 mph is not enough to bother with. The only way to know for sure is to install a data-logging wind meter and plot the output for an entire year unless you can locate historic data to prove the site is worthy.

Now the good news. The California Energy Commission has a program for offering rebates to customers that are grid-tied (as mentioned elsewhere in this site) and the rebates apply to wind turbines as well as solar systems. In the case of wind rebates, the rebate is paid per watt for the max rating of the wind generator which means that a 1000 watt turbine may earn a rebate of close to $3000 and the actual turbine not counting the inverter or tower may cost $2000. The same amount of solar would cost around $4300. That doesn’t mean that the site will produce but at least the rebate will pay 50% of your total cost . Worth exploring if you do live somewhere that blows. We can help advise you as to which turbines may work for you and which to steer clear of. For some reason there are a lot of crackpots in that industry trying to slick-talk market ridiculous little units that claim incredible outputs in spite of their humble size or unconventional design.

See the CEC website for eligible turbines
http://www.consumerenergycenter.org/erprebate/eligible_smallwind.html

For more information please call 831-336-8650, or email us at info@landandseasolar.com (please cut and paste this address into your email. We don't hyperlink to reduce spam)