Challenges and strategies for increasing adoption of small wind turbines in urban areas

Abstract

A student group at MIT in cooperation with the MIT Department of Facilities is currently working to install a Skystream 3.7 wind turbine on MIT's campus. This has raised several questions about how to best develop small wind projects in urban environments. The best wind resources in the country exist in relatively remote locations and require large investments in electricity transmission infrastructure to be effectively utilized. In the meantime, several large and small projects have been developed in the Boston area. The urban environment presents many challenges to development including the interaction of urban buildings with wind flow, concerns from neighbors and government over the aesthetics and safety of turbines that are installed near human populations, environmental effects including wildlife, noise, and shadows. There are also many opportunities including the ability to use net metering, little or no transmission infrastructure costs, and the ability to build on existing wind resource data and project assessments to develop a large number of installations. This document presents an overview of how the challenges of small wind turbine development in urban, suburban, and rural neighborhoods are currently being addressed by research in new and improved technology for turbines and siting, business strategies of existing companies, financing, and government policy. It looks at the strategy options available to businesses involved development of small wind turbines and evaluates the relative strengths and weaknesses of these strategies in a rapidly changing marketplace.