Yaw system used to align a HAWT with the wind however some yaw systems can be offset from the vertical axis. In addition, the following components usually are packaged as part of small wind turbines. These include 1) the control and protection system, 2) the tower (tilt-up towers, guyed towers and non-tilt-up or self-supporting towers) and depending on the application, alance-of-system (BOS) are often sold separately. With a rooftop turbine, an $800 tower is replaced by a $39 roof mounted tripod, or a length of pipe attached to the side of the house. According to Ron Stimmel of the American Wind Energy Association, “…rooftop wind turbines still account for only 1 percent or so of the 10,000 small wind turbines that are sold each year in the country.” For this reason, few performance statistics are available from actual owners. Especially if you get to the point where you are eliminating a good percentage of your power bill, you will be really enjoying the extra savings. In todays economy every dollar counts and a micro wind turbine is a great way to save some green. Also, a home wind turbine will drastically reduce your negative impact on the environment. You will no longer be contributing bad greenhouse gasses and allowing the power companies to pollute. Currently, the use of more traditional methods for generating power such as the burning of fossil fuels, generate harmful greenhouse gas emissions - very bad for the earths atmosphere and our planet!Tidal, Solar and Wind energy are generally referred to as Green energy sources. This is because they are natural, clean energy sources which do not produce harmful toxins or emissions and are more friendly to the earth and its atmosphere. Further to this, they are a long term, sustainable source of energy and they are incredibly cost effective.
