Even though it’s far cheaper to just get yourself plugged into your local electricity grid in the short term, you’re going to find that connecting to a wind turbine and making use of wind power energy is going to pay for itself in the future, and it will make you far more independent too. Can you imagine having free energy and not having the nervous wait for your next electricity bill?

As you’ll already know, fuel and electricity bills are constantly going up, whereas the cost of electricity provided by a wind turbine is going to remain a nice and reassuring zero. The cost of the installation of the system is decreasing all of the time too. One of the reasons for the falling cost of the wind turbines is the fact that they are becoming more efficient with the advancement of the technology, and companies are more willing to invest in them.

People have decided that it’s time to move away from the traditional electricity grid and gain more independence from the companies who are constantly increasing their prices. They have more awareness about the way that fossil fuels are used, and the fact that they are going to run out sooner rather than later. People are also starting to live a bit more remotely than they might have done a few short years ago, and that can often mean that mains electricity isn’t always available anyway.

These reasons for wanting to leave the grid and use wind power energy are another factor for the costs of wind turbines dropping in price. This newfound enthusiasm for the wind turbine has seen an increase in the numbers of businesses selling and maintaining them, which is another reason for the price fall of recent years.

There are, at the time of writing, almost thirty states that will offer homeowners who are both on the grid and have some form of alternative energy source, tax breaks or a rebate that could pay for as much as 50% of the ‘green’ system for generating their own energy. In addition, 35 states allow the homeowner to sell unneeded energy back to the grid through the ‘net metering laws’. When they do sell power back to the companies, they are going to receive the standard retail rate for it, meaning this can be a profitable venture for the homeowner.

There is a push on, however, to get the tax breaks extended across all 50 states. Nationwide incentives already exist in Germany and Japan, so it’s something that has caught on in other countries. The Energy Department’s Craig Stevens says though, “A lot of this is handled regionally by state law. There wouldn’t really be a role for the federal government”. Whether that will stop the idea from being rolled out everywhere is unknown.

The power companies are, predictably enough, claiming that it’s unfair that they have to pay retail prices to get this energy – oh, the irony of it all. Pacific Gas & Electric’s director of regulatory policy Bruce Bowen said “We should [only have to] pay you the wholesale rate for … your electricity” .

The power companies only seem to be worried about short-term profits, rather than the benefits of developing wind farms, and wind turbines. V. John White, head of the Center for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Technologies of California commented “its quality power that strengthens the grid”. Of course, given a chance and proper R&D, there’s no reason why wind power energy couldn’t be part of that “quality power” that’s required.

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