Two veterans in the small wind industry, Mick Sagrillo & Ian Woofenden, give the straight scoop—no sugarcoating—on how to select the right wind turbine for your site. The authors review 22 home-, farm-, business-, and school-scale wind turbines. This article is a reprint from the June & July 2009 issue of Home Power magazine.

This handout is a compilation of Minnesota-specific and federal incentives for wind energy systems. The list is divided into programs that are funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (the stimulus bill) and programs that are funded through other sources. This list was last updated August 21, 2009.

"Wind energy works and makes environmental sense—more so today than ever before—but consumers have to be on their guard," writes wind energy pioneer, expert, and advocate Paul Gipe in his newly revised Wind Energy Basics, Second Edition: A Guide to Home- and Community-Scale Wind-Energy Systems. Gipe has worked for over three decades in renewable energy, has authored seven books, and has lectured widely on wind energy and how to minimize its impact on the environment and the communities of which it is a part.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has published a report analyzing the impacts that state level feed-in tariff policies can have on the renewable energy industry across the country. The report uses data and reports from around the world to highlight the various benefits that a feed-in tariff type of policy can have on renewable energy development.

Have you been approached by a wind developer? Are you interested in leasing your land for wind development but want to make sure you are getting a fair deal?

This handout is designed to help landowners evaluate a wind developer before they sign an agreement. It is intended to provide a brief discussion of many topics and additional resources, including:

This publication goes through a broad overview of community-wind development. In includes some helpful resources and addresses the many different areas that community-wind development entails. The content is based on a series of presentations from 2008 by the same title.

Brad Haight is a renewable energy attorney in Colorado. His presentation "Developer Evaluation" gives landowners a starting place in evaluating a wind energy developer that is interested in their land. The document includes information on wind energy development and a checklist of important information for landowners to gather. Click on the file below to download.

Kandiyohi County in Minnesota created a small wind energy guide to help homeowners and residents learn more about installing a small wind generator system on their property. To see the complete guide, please visit:

http://www.kandiyohi.com/smallwind.htm