Small wind: It’s not the size that counts
Red Herring has a great little piece on Southwest Windpower, which I had a post on earlier this month. To recap, the Flagstaff, Ariz.-based company is the largest producer of small wind generators in North America, the company has been around for 20 years, and it recently snagged $8-million (U.S.) in a series-B round of financing led by Rockport Capital Partners of Boston.
Rockport is apparently excited because Southwest Windpower is trying to crack the market for grid-connected small wind generators, which it estimates could be as large as 13 million homes. The key to doing this is bundling all necessary inverters, controllers and other parts within the body of the generator itself, making the whole system much easier to install. It also lowers production costs, so the company can sell the system at a retail price of $5,500 (U.S.).
Frank Greco, CEO of Southwest Windpower, told Red Herring that the system would be able to produce electricity at an average cost per kilowatt hour of 8 cents, and this would exclude any subsidies that may be offered in some U.S. states. This would mean that in many jurisdictions it would beat the average cost per kilowatt hour coming off the grid.
The company does sell through distributors in Ontario. The question is whether Ontario’s new Standard Offer Program, which offers to pay 11 cents (Canadian) per kilowatt hour for wind power, would be open to small wind systems. All indication is that only large turbine projects would qualify, but perhaps we’ll be surprised when we see the details this fall. Either way, if the company’s claims hold true, this product — and others like it — could prove an affordable way for a homeowner or business to generate some of their own electricity either off-grid or through a grid-tie system. So long as they’ve got the wind resources and property to make it worthwhile.
Tyler Hamilton is editor-in-chief of Corporate Knights magazine and a business columnist for the Toronto Star, Canada's largest daily newspaper. In addition to this Clean Break blog, Tyler writes a weekly column of the same name that discusses trends, happenings and innovators in the clean technology and green energy market. This blog is a personal project started in April 2005. It is not an official blog of the newspaper.
