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International and U.S. Experience with Small Wind Turbines

United States

Experience with Small wind turbines in the United States provides an interesting perspective in terms of potential Canadian measures to promote SWTs. Many U.S. states offer rebates and incentive programs for small wind turbines up to 100 kW. For a comprehensive list of policies and incentives for small wind please see the Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficency. In October 2008, Congress passed an eight-year 30% federal Investment Tax Credit which has contributed to the continued growth of the small wind industry in the U.S. The U.S. industry is expected to grow 30-fold within as little as five years, with a cumulative US installed capacity of 1,700 MW by the end of 2013. In 2009, despite the economic recession, the U.S. market grew 15% reaching a cumulative installed capacity of 100 MW. Half of the 100 MW capacity came within the last three years of the industry’s 80 year history. Manufacturers have attributed this growth to a mixture of new and improved federal and state incentives, optimistic private equity investors and sustained consumer demand. Since 1980, it is estimated that 100,000 units have been sold in the U.S.

Experience in the U.S. indicates that SWTs are most successful where there are complementary elements including enabling policies (e.g. net metering, interconnection), market incentives (capital rebates or tax breaks), technology development (R&D, testing), and education and awareness-raising (published wind maps, guides for dealing with local bylaws, etc.). As an example, California provides substantial rebates for SWTs, sales tax incentives, “pro-SWT” net metering policies (allowing for systems up to 1 MW) as well as aggressive public awareness campaigns.

The United Kingdom

The UK is the second largest small wind turbine market with a cumulative installed capacity between 2005 and 2009 of 28.7 MW, for a total of 13,915 of small wind system units deployed in that same period. In April 2010, the UK government introduced an innovative feed-in-tariff structure that includes five different price structures for wind turbines between 0 and 1.5 MW:

	2010	Tariff		2011		2012
			1.480		1.480		1.480
	Years	^/kWh	CAD/kWh	^/kWh	CAD/kWh	^/kWh	CAD/kWh
Wind Energy	20
<1.5 kW		0.345	0.585	0.345	0.585	0.033	0.055
>1.5 kW<15 kW		0.267	0.453	0.267	0.453	0.255	0.432
>15 kW<100 kW		0.241	0.409	0.241	0.409	0.230	0.390
>100 kW<500 kW		0.188	0.319	0.188	0.319	0.188	0.319
>500 kW<1.5 MW		0.094	0.159	0.094	0.159	0.094	0.159
>1.5 MW<5 MW		0.045	0.076	0.045	0.076	0.045	0.076

RenewableUK’s annual small wind market report estimates that as a result of these FIT prices, the UK market is expected to grow by 181%, kor by £48.09 million.

The UK government has made certification mandatory for small wind turbines. The certifying body in the UK is the Microgeneration Certification Scheme. In 2010, the government allowed a temporary grace period in order to allow time for a greater number of small wind turbines to be certified.

Other countries

An increasing number of countries are recognizing the benefits of small wind turbines and are introducing pricing structures for small wind through feed-in-tariffs. These countries include Italy, Switzerland, Portugal and Israel.