Don wrote in about our pedal-powered electricity piece, saying he liked it but "you look like you don't have a good home wind power guide on your page." He's right, we don't. He recommends Otherpower's Wind Power site. I'm an armchair tinkerer myself, but Otherpower ("The cutting edge of low technology") looks to be pretty much a DIY home power enthusiast's stomping ground:
Build your own! Building a wind generator from scratch is not THAT difficult of a project. You will need a shop with basic power and hand tools, and some degree of dedication. Large wind generators of 2000 Watts and up are a major project needing very strong construction, but smaller ones in the 1000 Watt, 8-11 foot range can be built fairly easily from scrapped car parts and be up and flying in a week! In fact, we highly recommend that you tackle a smaller wind turbine before even thinking about building a large one. You'll need to be able to cut and weld steel, and a metal lathe can be handy (though you could hire a machine shop that turns brake rotors do do some small steps for you).
Of course, I'm sure there are other good sites and resources out there: anyone care to recommend others?









