Wind Project Types
Small Wind Turbines
Can be stand along or grid-connected, usually 100 kW or smaller. These are residential, small farm, or small business-sized turbines. The majority of the electricity is used on site. In many states, small wind turbines are eligible for net metering programs, allowing turbine owners to "bank" excess electricity with the local utility.
Small Distributed Wind Projects
Single or small clusters of utility-scale wind turbines. Often, projects such as these are owned and operated by individual farmers, farmer-owned business entities, local investors, or large energy consumers to offset their own consumption. These projects typically interconnect to existing local power distribution lines.
Community Wind Energy
These projects come in many shapes and sizes, but are unified by having some level of local or public involvement, equity, initiation, and control. Examples include: school-owned wind turbines, farmer owned wind cooperatives or LLCs, and local public power wind projects.
Large-Scale Wind Power Plants
Consist of large arrays of wind turbines concentrated in one area and governed under a single power purchase agreement. Often these projects are financed by large institutional investors based outside the local area. They are most often owned and operated by corporate entities, and land easements are signed with property owners. Projects of this size require their own transmission lines to deliver power to a distant population center. For the purposes of this website, wind power plants are classified as any project over 12 MW.
