Wind Turbines - Free Energy Courtesy Of Mother Nature

I’m sure you’ve heard by now (T. Boone Pickens, anyone?), but wind power is getting some major attention at the moment, thanks to our ongoing energy crisis here in America. Personally, I’m totally cool with that, because something needs to be done, and I think I can speak for the general public when I say that we’re very open minded at the moment!

Wind turbines aren’t anything futuristic or new, as they’ve been around for quite a while. However, with today’s current energy needs, there will obviously need to be some serious scientific engineering revamps to the way we use them, in order to make it a realistic substitution for other forms of energy.

Wind is free, and also quite abundant in many places, but not all. But the general consensus is, “hey, let’s install wind turbines and harness wind energy wherever we can to help cut down on non-renewable resource consumption”. Being able to just plop down a wind turbine in front of your house is a little ways off, but not as far as one would think. If you had the opportunity to install a wind turbine on your property, depending on where you live, you could probably live independently of the power grid for the rest of your days (or as long as the wind keeps blowing!).

It’s actually kind of neat to think that maybe one day you’ll be at Home Depot picking out colors and styles for your government mandated wind turbine if you are a homeowner. I imagine apartment and office buildings with a commercial grade turbine on the roof that powers the entire building. Pretty cool, right?

Believe it or not, even though mass use of wind turbines is a little ways away, if you’re really feeling the “green” spirit, you can build one yourself! That’s right - there are many plans out there (just do a few Google searches) that will tell you how to build your own turbine to harness Earth’s natural power. As a matter of fact, if you want to dive into the world of “wind farming”, head over to this popular wind farmer’s hangout, where I’m sure you’ll get all your questions answered from a nice group of like minded people!

Back to the homemade turbines - in all reality, you don’t need to live in a very windy place to take advantage of them. Even a light breeze will spin most homemade turbines, and the power is stored in convenient batteries that you can use later on when you need it.  One well build wind turbine isn’t all that expensive, and can generate a good portion (if not all) of the energy you need to power your home (depending on energy usage and home size, of course). Not only that, but let’s say you went big time, and build a turbine a little bigger than you planned. Have left over power? Well, depending on how much, quite a few local power companies may be interested in buying it from you. How cool would that be - sending them the bill instead of vice versa!

I’m sure over the next year or two, we’ll see significant improvements in wind turbine science, and chances are good that we’ll see it go mainstream in the next decade. Stay tuned!