The Biggest U.S. Market for Tiny Wind Farms Isn't the Breeziest

(Bloomberg) -- Turns out the best place to install a small turbine in the U.S. isn’t the Plains, where winds blow the strongest, but the Northeast where the incentives are better.

The Northeast is home to the most capacity of net-metered wind power -- the small-scale, behind-the-meter kind installed by homes and businesses -- with Massachusetts having the most in the U.S., Energy Information Administration data show. States in the region offer net-metering programs that allow customers to install wind turbines and credit them for the power they supply to the grid.

In fact, the Northeast, along with the West Coast, have some of the most robust policies encouraging renewable energy development, and that’s what’s driving the installations, said Mike Bergey, chief executive officer of turbine supplier Bergey Windpower.

“If it was related to wind, Montana or Wyoming would be in the lead,” he said, but “New York and Massachusetts in particular have been aggressive on promoting clean energy at both large and small scale.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Gerald Porter Jr. in New York at gporter30@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Lynn Doan at ldoan6@bloomberg.net, Jessica Summers

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