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.