A 1 kW wind turbine costs about $6,000 installed. And you need an average wind speed of 14 mph to make it come even close to paying off. Even then its capacity factor is about 25%, so you only get an average of about 0.25 kW from the wind turbine — which is enough to keep 2 or 3 light bulbs burning — for $6,000 ! A 2.4 kW wind Turbine costs about $18,000 or $20,000. And this 2.4 kW unit, with a 25% capacity factor, probably is not enough to power a normal home

If you have an $80/ month electric bill, your electric cost for 20 years is about $18 to $20,000.
So you are basically "pre-paying" your electric bill for 20 years or more, and hoping the wind turbine lasts that long. It likely won’t. It needs lots of maintenance and repairs.

Then the common sense kicks in. The wind blows sufficiently on warm mild days or in the evenings. Americans need their most Power on Hot days to run air conditioning. The wind is not blowing on "hot days" — that why hot days are "hot" — there is no wind to cool things down. So now you have to build and invest more $$$ in a "back-up" generation plant. This is to produce power on those "hot days" when the wind is not blowing. How else do you run the A/C? So now you still have the need for "normal generation" — a coal plant, a natural gas plant, etc. So you really have not eliminated the need for "normal power generators".

Short run or long run — it does not pan out economically, and does not eliminate the need for natural gas power generation plants. Solar Power is similar as well — not cost effective at all at todays energy and power rates.

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