On the Longfellow Sustainability Group Facebook page we’ve been talking about wind energy and how it may be a more affordable energy alternative than solar. As I noted in my post on the movie Windfall, most solar installations are overpoweringly large – certainly not something a typical homeowner can take advantage of.

We saw an urban-friendly wind turbine at the Living Green Expo last week and one of our group members has explored it further. Minnesota Wind Energy offers several small turbines. Their website is terrible. Their brochure is equally bad. But they appear to be the only game in town. Here’s what friend Annette found out about these units, which can be installed on the ground or on a rooftop.

• The 400 watt-48 volt unit sells for $2800 (add approx $1,500-$2,500 to install)
• The 1500 watt-120 volt unit sells for $15,000 (add approx $4,500-$7,500 to install)
• The 3000 watt-120 volt unit sells for $20,000 (add approx $5,500-$9,000 to install)

The US government offers a 30% tax refund and rebates from the state or Xcel may be in the works.

Looking for more info on wind? Group members suggested:

• SourceWatch
• For those of you who are engineers, here’s a pretty thorough but complex document on greenhouse gas emissions and various energy sources