The September winds are still blowing, but it’s already October! Cosequently I have been asked the same question by people from Bullaburra to Brunswick and from Fitzroy to Wentworth Falls. And I have some answers, some very funky answers!

The question: How can I use all that wind energy by putting a turbine on my roof? 

The Viability of Domestic Wind Turbines for Urban Melbourne is a report just released by the Alternative Technology Association with Sustainability Victoria which addresses this question describing the  technology, physics, planning, grid connection and economics of small scale wind turbines, and it is applicable to most urban centres in Australia.

The turbine technology looks great and keeps getting better. Take the QuietRevolution vertical axis turbine, shown above. Designed for urban parks it looks like modern sculpture. Or the Hush turbine made in Melbourne.  It’s quiet, robust and operates in low wind speeds. The WindWall is designed to be mounted on the edge of buildings to capture the updraft. And the Motorwave looks like a wall of Pacmen, with dozens of small platic rotors like toy helicopter blades.

The wind industry is growing at the rate of 25% per year and has done so for the past 20 years.

The Howard Government’s announcement of a Clean Energy Target of 30,000 Gigawatt hours is welcome news. Clean Energy Council CEO Dominique La Fontaine responded on Lateline Business. As former CEO of the Australian Wind Energy Association Ms La Fontaine is well placed to comment on the effect this target will have on the wind industry. Matthew Warren business journalist at the Australian wrote recently:

The Government’s new clean energy target of about 15per cent of low-emissions electricity by 2020 effectively underwrites the existing array of state renewable targets and foreshadows an even bigger national scheme from Labor in the coming days.

Wind is expected to be the big winner from these expansions. As with the Mandatory Renewable Energy Target (MRET), electricity retailers will be required to subsidise the gap between the wholesale electricity price and low-emissions technologies. The final bill will depend on changes in these prices as well as the impact of a price on greenhouse emissions set by emissions trading from about 2011, but by 2020 is likely to be somewhere north of $6 billion.

The grassroots political group GetUp have a brilliant new ad sending up the Government’s Climate Change message.