California Center for Sustainable Energy

Wind turbine technology has evolved over the past twenty years, to a point that wind power is a very cost effective way to generate electricity - as long as you're located in an area with reliable wind! To learn more about how wind turbine rotor blades extract kinetic energy from the wind, and convert rotational shaft power into electricity.

In our San Diego region, we have limited wind resources. Sea breezes prevalent in coastal areas are not strong enough for efficient wind power production. However, some potential exists in the East County region. During Santa Ana conditions - when high pressure builds over the Great Basin, east of the Sierra mountains and west of the Rocky mountains - East County winds can exceed 25 piles per hour, ideal operating conditions for a wind turbine.

Wind energy resources are characterized by wind power density classes, ranging from Class 1 to Class 7 (low to high). Good wind resources -Class 3 and above - have an average annual wind speed of at least 13 miles per hour. The National Renewable Energy Lab has developed a Wind Resource Map :: Southern California annual average wind power

for Southern California, which shows several East County regions at Class 3 and above.

Large scale wind power systems need a lot of unobstructed property area for the turbine tower and capture of wind. Ideally, the location chosen will be near existing electricity transmission lines. With these inherent limitations, there are very few viable large scale applications for wind power in San Diego County. However, East County business and homeowners in Class 3 and above areas may wish to investigate small scale wind power to offset part or all their energy needs.

Part of the unobstructed property area requirements for large scale wind power arise from the San Diego County Zoning Regulations for wind turbines. These regulations should be thoroughly reviewed as part of a project feasbility study.

Cash Incentives available now!

Under the CPUC's Self-Generation Incentive Program, wind turbines of combined output between 30 kilowatts and 1 megawatt, and sized at or below customer's annual peak demand are eligible for an incentive of $1500 per kilowatt installed.

Example: a 50kW wind turbine could be installed for approximately $165,000. Based on system size, incentive would be $75,000.

If you are considering a 30 kW or larger wind power project in the San Diego region, please Self-Generation Incentive Program. To learn more about rebates for wind turbines or fuel cells that generate less than 30 kW of energy, visit the California Energy Commission's Emerging Renewables Program.