San Francisco is pioneering urban wind applications through the formation of the Residential Wind Power Work Group to explore the feasibility of small-scale wind power generation throughout the city. They are currently working on reworking their zoning to allow small wind turbines on 35-foot poles within urban neighborhoods.

“The Great Lakes of North America offer some of the world's best wind resources, which are only now beginning to be exploited.”

“Spinning cheaply and cleanly in brisk Great Lakes breezes, Cleveland’s 225 kW Vestas machine is the first utility-scale wind turbine to generate electricity in the heart of an American city.”

“Indeed, this lakeside machine may now be the most highly visible and frequently visited wind turbine on the planet. Fittingly, it spins in the city that hosted the world’s first electricity generating windmill, a mere 120 years ago.”

Excerpts from Great Wind on a Great Lake by Harvey Wasserstrom.