First Residential Wind Turbine Goes Up in Atlanta’s Grant Park Neighborhood

Here's a reminder of how new the concept of residential wind power really is. The first residential wind turbine in the state of Georgia was just recently installed. Here are the details in a press release from the dealer who installed it.

MARIETTA, GEORGIA, August 30, 2007 – A small-scale residential wind generator installed last week in the side yard of Christine and Curt Mann of Atlanta, Georgia, will give them the ability to generate a portion of their home’s electricity. The Skystream 3.7 from Southern Energy Solutions of Marietta, Georgia, is a fully-integrated wind generator designed specifically for the grid-connected residential market.

In response to being asked about the sleek energy-generating tower recently installed at his home, Mr. Mann said, "I would just encourage people to reach out and look at different alternatives. This is one of many things out there." The Mann's indeed are including other sustainable energy alternatives in their 1920's-era home that is undergoing major renovations. Included is a Brac Greywater Recycling
System, also from Southern Energy Solutions. It takes in household greywater (bath/shower water, laundry water), filters and treats it, and then re-uses it for toilet flushing, potentially saving the Mann family 30% or more on their potable water consumption.

The Mann home is in the Grant Park neighborhood of Atlanta, near Zoo Atlanta and Turner Field. When asked about installation of the Skystream wind turbine in this urban setting with relatively low wind speeds, Roger Cone, founder of Southern Energy Solutions, said, "We all went into this project knowing that this was not an ideal placement of the Skystream. But it should generate somewhere between 200 to 400 kWh a month on average and in doing so will eliminate as much CO2 from the atmosphere as an acre of mature, healthy trees." Mr. Cone went on to say, "Our target markets for the Skystream wind turbine are those areas of Georgia with greater average wind speeds, such as the mountains of north Georgia and the coastal areas of southeast Georgia."

Marietta, Georgia, based Southern Energy Solutions is a dealer of sustainable building products including "green" HVAC systems, greywater recycling systems, LED lighting, solar heating, solar PV, solar thermal and wind turbines. Southern Energy Solutions serves all of Georgia.

About the Skystream 3.7 Backyard Wind Turbine

The Skystream, developed by Arizona-based Southwest Windpower in collaboration with the US Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Lab, has unique curved blades for quiet operation. It is the first backyard-sized wind turbine that includes a built-in inverter and requires no external components. Mounted on a 35-100 ft. tower, Skystream costs approximately $12,000 to $15,000 installed. Depending on the wind resource, Skystream generates between 30-80% of the power required by a typical home. The Skystream 3.7 was awarded a 2006 Best of What's New award from the editors of Popular Science and included in TIME magazine's 2006 Best Inventions.

Interested in residential wind power? Considered building your own turbine?
You can get started with today with Power4Home.