The USA wind power production comes second only to natural gas as a source of new energy.Over 16800 megawatts of power were produced by wind turbines and thirty percent of that production capacity was built in 2007. This year,2008,around 1% of the US power needs will be supplied by wind energy. Large commercial wind turbines account for most of this but small wind power generators owned by individuals supply an ever increasing amount. More and more people have realised that they must take steps to reduce dependence on fossil fuel generated power which pollutes our atmosphere with its emissions. Coal and natural gas powered electric power production has increased at an alarming rate in recent times and is a major cause of atmospheric pollution.

Wind power by comparision is absolutely clean and the only objectiion to it,voiced by some people,is visual pollution from the arrays of wind turbines necessary for large scale power production. However there are no problems of this kind with the residential wind turbine. Relatively small and unobtrusive home wind turbines including vertical axis wind turbines are the key to small scale wind power generation. A combination of home solar panels-wind turbines can produce much of the power required by the average home. Small wind powered turbines are manufactured by a number of companies and can be readily set up either as a rooftop wind turbine or mounted on its own small tower. A tower height of 30 feet is often recommended. These will pay for themselves in time but are quite expensive.

If you know how to build a wind turbine your home wind turbine will cost much less and fortunately this is fairly easy to do. Plans and instructions showing how to build your own wind turbine are readily available and thousands of people have built their own home made wind turbine. You will often be told that strong winds are needed for wind power generation. This is absolutely not so. Even gentle breezes will produce power which is stored in batteries till needed.

If you live far from electric power lines you either get by with no electric power or generate your own. Gasoline powered generators will do the job but they are expensive to run and heavy polluters. You may be fortunate enough to have a stream which can generate power for you using a water power system but these are usually difficult to build and expensive. In most situations a wind turbine is the best answer. In fact you can build your own wind power generator for a fraction of the cost of a commercial model. You could install two or three of them and have plenty of power for all purposes. Building your own home wind turbine is a fairly simple project which the average home workshopper can easily manage. Wind power is the coming thing and will save you money as well as reducing atmospheric pollution. Why not try it?