Residential Wind Power Reaps Investors and Political Support

Several large investors have pumped money into a U.S. company that specializes in building wind turbines for individual homes, while government policy is increasingly offering generous tax credits and other incentives to spur installation of residential wind and solar power arrays, The Wall Street Journal reports. GE’s Energy Financial Services, Chevron’s CTTV Investments, Altira, and other firms have invested a total of $10 million in Southwest Windpower of Arizona, which manufacturers wind turbines that the company says can meet half of a typical home’s energy needs. The company says, however, that the home turbines must be situated in windier parts of the country on at least an acre of ground. The trend to home-powered electricity generation is gaining momentum, with Congress’ stimulus package offering homeowners tax credits covering 30 percent of the costs of installing renewable energy systems. A proposed climate bill also would give utilities that buy renewable energy generated by homeowners three-times as many credits toward renewable energy targets as the utilities would receive from building large wind farms or solar arrays.