Small-scale wind turbines can't produce the large amounts of power that their giant brothers can, but there's still room for them in the renewable energy landscape.  As an example, cell phone company Core Communications will begin using small vertical-axis wind turbines to power their cell phone towers.

The company will use turbines from Helix Wind that can generate electricity in winds as slow as 10 mph.  The turbines will power the towers and any extra electricity will be sold to the grid, giving Core Communications a new source of revenue as well.

The turbines will be installed on a trial basis on cell phone towers in Southern California for three months starting in early 2010.  If they perform well enough, additional turbines could be rolled out permanently.

via CNET

The potential of small-scale wind power is starting to be discussed more.  Soon, like small-scale solar installations, wind turbines will be springing up in backyards and on rooftops.  If you're thinking that you'd like to be one of the people with a turbine out back, you'll need to assess the wind speeds around your house.  Luckily, as the commercials say, there's an app for that.

A new iPhone app by Mariah Power lets you measure wind speeds around you by simply holding your phone in the air.  The program uses the microphone to pick up the noise of the wind and then calculates the speed based on decibel level.  The program filters out ambient sound, but you need to avoid louder noises like lawn mowers for the app to read the breeze - or the gust if you're wanting to crank out some watts.

The company claims the measurements are accurate within 1.5 mph.  Once you take your measurements, you can share them on a map to help them build a database of wind maps.

While this app is cool, it is also a blatant marketing tool for Mariah's Windspire residential wind turbine.  The 1.2-kW turbine is 30 feet tall and works in areas with average wind speeds of 10 mph or greater.  The company recommends calculating wind speeds over the course of a year before deeming your home turbine-suitable.

via Green Inc.