What is Voodoo Wind?

Voodoo wind is all of the misconceptions, half-truths and outright falsehoods spewed out by ersatz manufacturers, overly aggressive dealers and self-styled experts in the field of small wind.  These misleading snippets of information range from well-meaning misconceptions to malicious, profit motivated fairy tales perpetrated by the small wind industry’s very own version of snake oil salesmen.  Voodoo wind over promises and under delivers.  It is smoke and mirrors.

 Voodoo wind hurts us; everyone engaged in small wind.  It makes us question power curves put out by trustworthy turbine manufacturers.  It sews the seed of doubt when listening to the sales presentations of ethical dealers.  It causes us undue anxiety when watching competent installers mount our expensive new turbines on top of tall towers.  It costs customers untold thousands of dollars when their systems won’t, don’t or can’t perform as specified.  But by far the most damaging is the fact that it provides ample ammunition to those who would say that small wind is simply not feasible.

I know that small wind works.  I am tired of small wind professionals being compared to dust bowl era rainmakers.  I have had enough of voodoo wind and I demand the following:

 -That manufacturers utilize a common set of standards to rate their turbines’ power
-That all manufacturers require a certain level of training and competence from their dealers
-That all states adopt the set of standards utilized by the State of Ohio to certify approved wind installers
-That dealers realize that trading long term viability for short term profit is a death sentence for our industry
-That tower manufacturers seek out and employ dynamic testing standards for all wind turbine towers
-That the Small Wind Certification Council (SWCC) comes to fruition and helps to eliminate shoddy manufacturers
-That consumers take the time to educate themselves so that they know the Truth when they hear it and see it

If we demand competence and expect integrity, we can help to eliminate voodoo wind.