Friday, August 3, 2007

Wind turbine definitions

A bit of searching for established definitions of turbine categories left me with the impression that the reader and installer of a machine essentially defines the "middle wind" (community wind) turbine size. Here's what I think
  • micro- or architectural wind turbine: has a rated power of under 500 watts
  • small wind turbine: has a rated power of 500 watts to 35 kW
  • community wind: has a rated power of 35 kW to 250 kW (or as North Dakota SEED indirectly states, "all developments that do qualify for net metering")
  • large wind turbine: has a rated power of more than 250 kW.
The rated power of a "community wind turbine" is defined by the respective state's legislators, but the above range is workable for USDA Rural Development Energy Program projects. In the 2002 "Farm Bill," Section 9006 was for Renewable Energy Systems and Energy Efficiency. Nearly every person living on the Great and Upper Plains can compete for energy development in the 2007 "Farm Bill."