| By :
Roger Brown
At first it can seem like wind turbine pricing is designed to frustrate you. It is almost never clear and the manufacturers give you so much information that you cannot possibly sort it all out unless you are in the business. However, before you move forward to pricing you should work through and understand what you are trying to accomplish and what resources you have at your disposal in terms of wind on your property. What do you think you want to do with the electricity you make from the wind? There are a lot of different things, ranging from simple battery charging to sending the excess power you make to the grid and getting paid for it. If you are planning seriously about selling power back to your utility, then you must get a professional involved who is familiar with the utility's protocol for tying in with their system. It is wise to also check in with your city planning office and see if there are any permitting or zoning restrictions that will limit what kind of turbine you can install. Many times local governments will impose restrictions because of complaints from citizens. Many of those complaints are unfounded but they are there and you have to factor them in nonetheless. When all that is done, then here are the 3 big factors that can drive your pricing and costs: 1. Initial cost - what the price tag says. Be careful though, because all the parts are not always included in the kits that are offered. In order to have them priced competitively, they sometimes leave some parts for you to buy yourself later. 2. Ongoing costs - what does it cost to do annual maintenance and replace the parts that wear out? This can be a big variable, especially when it comes to replacement parts. Wear surfaces like blades can really drive the ongoing cost of operation up. 3. The cost to mount and put the turbine in service - this can cost hardly anything at all in the case of charging a battery or it can be very complicated in the case of a grid tie-in. In the final analysis, it is smart to understand on the front end the key pieces of information you need to make decisions on wind turbine pricing. Don't short circuit this process and jump right to pricing. That would be a mistake because the long term expenses with wind turbines for homes can outweigh the great price you think you got.
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