Opportunities in Small Wind?

Certain technologies become unfeasible below a certain scale. Concentrated solar power is one. Yes, you can take a solar cooker on a backpacking trip, but you certainly can’t set up a CSP plant on the roof of your house that will compete with PV.

To the chagrin of a great number of investors, this is the lesson the world has learned about small wind, which is defined as anything under 100 kW. Here’s a stock chart for Xzeres Wind (believe it or not) one of the leaders in this space. Looks a bit on the moribund side to me.

For what it’s worth, I continue to believe there are opportunities here, but they are limited to applications where one enjoys an already-existing elevation above obstructions like trees and buildings, e.g., powering cellular telephone stations/towers.