can i start up my very own small wind farm somewhere in the u.s for profit?

Question

I know that you can put up a windmill or two on your property to reduce your own power consumption if you live in a rural area. the question is, can i build 10 of them to create more power than i use and sell the power for profit? the world needs clean energy and I'm interested in an investment. what are the rules?

Answer 1

why not?? if you have the money, you can buy the land you need to run the farm

Answer 2

It would not be easy. Most commercial power providers do not allow co-generation for profit, however in rural areas where REA cooperatives supply the electricity, they are required by federal regulation to allow co-generation. That is, your meter will run both ways, so that on windy days your excess will subract from your previous consumption on calm days. That is about as good as it gets. The limitation on the amount you can sell to the REA is strictly limited by the size of the transformer at your pole. That is quite a gotcha considering your plan.

To be a significant supplier, you will have to pay for the new power lines and transformers that will feed this back to the "grid". Being rural implies you are some distance from a suitable sub-station. This is the problem we are up against in Wyoming. Plenty of wind, but the capacity of wires to move the electric power to consumers out-of-state has already been reached. The state is facilitating construction of new high tension lines, but they are years off.

Even to just use the power locally, it will cause a lot of difficulty for the REA because they cannot depend on you delivering power as it is needed. No wind, too much wind, mechanical parts broken, and insufficent demand locally for the time of day...

The 10 generators would best be used by sharing them with 10 rural neighbors, forming a kind of mini-Enron that co-generates with the REA at each homesite, and you could be CEO.

Answer 3

Sure but the setup will cost you a fortune and don't forget that you need to get all the zoning and EPA impact stuff done so plan on big legal fees. The downside is that the power companies only pay you the wholesale price for energy and not what they charge the consumer. So ten cents a kWh charged to the consumer might be only 2 or 3 cents by the time you get paid.

Answer 4

I have a friend that has a waterfall on his property, he uses it to generate his own electricity...it usually produces more than he uses and he sells the left over electricity to the power company near by. so yes you would be able to do it with wind.