Critics of rooftop wind turbines say that they simply don’t work or don’t work as well as advertised. The critics are right in some instances and that is why the consumer needs to know what they are getting into and what to watch out for before investing in a rooftop wind turbine.

Some of the factors that will influence the output of the rooftop wind turbine include the design itself (horizontal or vertical axis), the kilowatt rating of the generator, where the rooftop wind turbine is placed, the angle or pitch of the roof, how much wind the region provides and any obstructions that may block the wind.

The design of the rooftop wind turbine is important for several reasons. Aesthetics is one of the larger reasons homeowners today would want to put a renewable energy generator atop their houses. Also, rooftop wind generators can be a status symbol that one is doing one’s part to help the environment, create jobs for others and lower bills in these tough economic times.

Some wind turbines make more noise than others. The biggest complaint about a series of rooftop wind turbines placed at the Logan International Airport in Boston has been from an office worker below that says they make too much noise.

As I’ve stated in other sections of this website, celebrities like Jay Leno and Ed Begley, Jr. have decided to place rooftop wind turbines on their homes and garages. In both cases vertical axis magnetic wind turbines were chosen to fill the bill.

Some homeowners state that vertical axis wind turbines in general are a little quieter than their horizontal axis counterparts. Rooftop wind turbines generally come with a kilowatt (kW) rating such as 5 kW, 10 kW or 20 kW that reflects how much electricity one can expect it to generate for one’s home or business. It is important to either have a large enough rooftop wind generator or several that add up to enough in order to provide the needed power.

Some rooftop wind turbines will work more favorably when on the edge of a rooftop, such as one that is long and flat (sort of like being on the edge of a cliff with an updraft). Others, however, on roofs with more angle or pitch will work more favorably in a higher location. Finding the right spot on the rooftop can add 5 to 40-percent more efficiency in electricity generation.

One of the most obvious points is for home and business owners in rather windless areas to not buy rooftop wind turbines but rather opt for other alternative energy resources. Wind maps may help some determine if there is enough regional wind to justify the purchase of building of a rooftop wind turbine. Buying an inexpensive anemometer and tracking results is also helpful before making a decision.

A less obvious issue when deciding on putting up a rooftop wind generator may be any obstructions current or future that could block the full wind from getting to the generator. Trees, other buildings, hillsides or even large vehicles can deflect the wind away from the turbine. If the rooftop is inside a city filled with buildings the wind path can become quite tricky as it may bounce from one structure to the next causing turbulence and an inconsistent flow.

Near homes, neighbors’ trees grow and leaf out, people may put up a second story or business may build structure in close proximity to homes which all may impact rooftop wind turbines. The important thing is to think about as may variables as possible when deciding if a rooftop wind turbine makes sense and the location that fits well.

That said, many people are now rolling back their electrical meters using rooftop wind turbines. Manufacturers of these turbines are busier than ever before. With a little forethought and planning, a rooftop wind turbine may make sense (and dollars) for homes and businesses across the nation. So, what are you waiting for? The time is now just like the name of this website indicates.

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Medford officials are hoping for a lot of those days in the future. That’s because the city is in the process of commissioning a wind turbine at the John J. McGlynn Sr. Elementary and Middle School.

The site is just along the highway and the Mystic River near the Route 16 exit and visible to thousands of people using the road.

The turbine’s hub is 131 feet high and its three blades are 34 feet long. It was made by Northern Power of Barre, Vt., and is expected to generate 170,000 kilowatt hours, or about $25,000 worth of electricity per year. That’s about 10 percent of the school’s electricity bill, said Patty Barry, director of the city’s energy and environment office.

Barry and Mayor Michael J. McGlynn showed the turbine to a reporter yesterday, a day after the official ribbon-cutting ceremony.

Barry said the project was just one of a number of environmental initiatives the city has undertaken during the mayor’s tenure, including the installation of a solar power system on City Hall, solar lighting at Hormel Stadium, and the use of town vehicles powered by alternative fuels.

One project led to the next, McGlynn said. “The one thing about the environment, it’s addictive . . . because the more you do the more you want to do,” he said.

One of the key reasons for installing the turbine was to create awareness of alternative energy among the children at the schools, he said.

Another benefit of the project, McGlynn said, will be to get more name recognition for the city.

“Part of the thought process was that we wanted to build a landmark here in the city. So pretty soon, you’ll be hearing on the radio that ‘Traffic is backed up to the turbine in Medford,’ ” he said.

Maureen McCracken, director of marketing at Northern Power, said the company’s turbines can spin and make electricity in winds as slow as 6 mph and as fast as 56 miles per hour.

The Medford turbine has already put some power onto the grid, though it hasn’t been cleared for unattended operation. It’s expected to be fully operational at the end of next week.

The Globe reported Thursday that Governor Deval Patrick’s lofty goals of making the state a leader in energy and environmental policy may be endangered by the stumbling economy, which has produced massive budget deficits.

To reach the state’s goal of 2,000 megawatts produced by wind power by 2020, the state would have to increase generating capacity more than 300 times.

But the $644,000 Medford project, which benefited from a number of major grants, has made it under the wire.

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Consultants on alternative energy also tell us that we need multilateral, international efforts in concert with one another in the direction of getting away from the heavy—almost total—dependence on fossil fuels. They are poised to become too expensive, burning them is polluting the atmosphere, and digging for them is disrupting the natural environment. We have about 30 years left of reasonably cheap oil and gas—and consultants say that within 20 years beyond that point, we had better be at least 90% independent of them. Unfortunately, at the present time the world is mostly not acting as if this is the case. The thirst for oil is growing, not slaking, and it is growing faster now than it did even in the 1970s.

One of the major problems of transition, the consultants point out, is that higher oil and gas prices stimulate the economy (This flies in the face of what many energy so-called “experts” and many members of the public believe, but the fact is that oil and gas are found and manufactured and transported by huge corporations who employ multitudes of staff workers and contractors; and from their huge profits their stocks remain lucrative on Wall Street.). Alternative, or “green” energy has to become more marketplace friendly, more profitable to investors and would-be employers. Wall Street does not like change; so there is resistance to this much-needed economic transition. It is because of this that many consultants are saying that we need an international, governments-backed initiative put into place; we are told that we cannot expect the new economy to spring forth overnight, all clean and polished and perfected, from the black ashes of the fossil fuel economy phoenix.

It is most imperative that the wealthy, big-production nations such as the US, Japan, Western Europe, and others be the ones to spearhead the effort to get off of the fossil fuel dependence. Smaller, poorer nations are very simply never going to achieve the level of energy production through coal and oil that these nations have—for by the time they would be ready to, the cheap access to the fossil fuels will be gone, and they will never be able to sustain their newly-risen civilizations at that time as we have been able to do. The time for transition from black to green is now.

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As Remi Wilkinson, Senior Analyst with Carbon Free, puts it, inevitably, the growth of distributed generation will lead to the restructuring of the retail electricity market and the generation, transmission and distribution infrastructure. The power providers may have to diversify their business to make up for revenues lost through household energy microgeneration. She is referring to the conclusions by a group of UK analysts, herself included among them, who call themselves Carbon Free. Carbon Free has been studying the ever-growing trend toward alternative energy-using homes in England and the West. This trend is being driven by ever-more government recommendation and sometimes backing of alternative energy research and development, the rising cost of oil and other fossil fuels, concern about environmental degradation, and desires to be energy independent. Carbon Free concludes that, assuming traditional energy prices remain at their current level or rise, microgeneration (meeting all of one’s home’s energy needs by installing alternative energy technology such as solar panels or wind turbines) will become to home energy supply what the Internet became to home communications and data gathering, and eventually this will have deep effects on the businesses of the existing energy supply companies.

Carbon Free’s analyses also show that energy companies themselves have jumped in on the game and seek to leverage microgeneration to their own advantage for opening up new markets for themselves. Carbon Free cites the example of electricity companies (in the UK) reporting that they are seriously researching and developing ideas for new geothermal energy facilities, as these companies see geothermal energy production as a highly profitable wave of the future. Another conclusion of Carbon Free is that solar energy hot water heating technology is an efficient technology for reducing home water heating costs in the long run, although it is initially quite expensive to install. However, solar power is not yet cost-effective for corporations, as they require too much in the way of specialized plumbing to implement solar energy hot water heating. Lastly, Carbon Free tells us that installing wind turbines is an efficient way of reducing home electricity costs, while also being more independent. However, again this is initially a very expensive thing to have installed, and companies would do well to begin slashing their prices on these devices or they could find themselves losing market share.

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