Wind Power and Powerless

The problems with wind power are the limits of wind physics and the cost of construction necessary to manage those limits.

Laminar wind flow, not turbulence,  generates power. The bottom of the blades of a wind turbine have to be about 50 feet above the all obstructions within 500 feet, so if you have a 30 foot high house and a 15 foot diameter turbine, you needs 88 foot tower minimum. A 90 foot tower strong enough to stand up to thunderstorm gusts costs several tens of thousands of dollars.

The second problem is that 90%+ of the US has poor wind, wind that might make garden chimes sound but not create power. A turbine may start spinning at about 10 mph wind, but it really does not start producing any power until nearly 20 mph winds.

  

The next physics problem is wind power increases by the cube power: 2X the power, 8X the energy. Wind at 10 mph has only 1/8 the energy of 20 mph wind. Wind at 40 mph is 64 times more powerful - and blows the turbine, unless very well engineered, to pieces. If the turbine is strong enough to withstand 40-60 mph winds, it is too heavy to work at all at slow winds speeds.

"Science."