One of the better places for a wind power generator is on the brow of a hill. A well positioned wind turbine can produce a serious amount of electricity and bang for buck gives a much better return on investment than solar electric panels. In fact it wouldn't be unreasonable for a well located turbine to reduce your electricity bill by as much as 30%

However, a badly located turbine can be very inefficient.The diagram shows the effect a house has on prevailing winds. Clean air can be found away from the house, to the right at a distance of 20 times its height. An 8m high house would mean the wind turbine should be located 20 * 8 = 160m away from the house. Or in this case simply in front of it.

Like solar PV panels, storing the electrical energy in batteries can be expensive so feeding the generated power directly into the house supply is better. This can be done using an approved wind turbine inverter which converts and synchronises the electricity so it's compatible with the grid supply. If there's sufficient wind your meter literally slows down or you can sell the power produced back to the grid operator.

Contrary to rumours they rarely kill birds/wild life and produce very little more noise than the sound of the wind itself.

Before buying a wind power generator or wind turbine we highly recommend getting a monitor that records the speed and direction of the wind for your proposed location. After at least 2-3 months you'l have adequate wind data to calculate if your future wind turbine is going to be a cash cow or a very expensive garden ornament!