UK - Home wind turbines turn fashionable

A mere breath of a breeze disturbs the quiet of autumn in south London and the wind turbine on the gable of Donnachadh McCarthy's home turns lazily. The morning sun casts shadows from solar panels onto the walls of the house and filters through the windows into his living room. "I'm in surplus. I am now providing money to the grid," he said with a grin, gesturing at a red light winking on the wall that marks the progress of his domestic power station. "I have exported 20 percent more electricity than I've imported this year," he said. "The average carbon footprint is 8.5 (metric) tons in the (European Union), whereas mine is less than half a ton." McCarthy has long tried to stay at the forefront of British green power generation. Last November, he made a small media splash as the first Londoner to gain permission to put a turbine on a house that already boasted an array of renewable energy devices. And his direct action to avoid using fossil fuels - the main cause of climate change - is beginning to look not so much eccentric as ahead of its time.

This year, David Cameron, leader of the opposition Conservative Party, said he would add a turbine and solar panels to his west London home, giving "microgeneration" mass media exposure. Sure enough, domestic turbines promptly gained the accolade of a scare story in the tabloid press. "Homeowners could be forced by Labour to put up 3,000 pound ($5,250) wind turbines on their roofs," warned the Daily Mail in an article about the governing Labour party's energy policy. The government is so far showing no signs of making turbines compulsory, but earlier this year it launched an initiative that will devote 80 million pounds ($150 million) over the next three years to develop and promote microgeneration. The Energy Saving Trust, funded by the government and the private sector, says green power generation could supply more than one-third of energy needs within a few decades. About 80,000 homes in Britain are producing electricity with small renewable-power generation units such as turbines. Now turbines have been embraced by mainstream retailers like B&Q, a chain of hardware stores run by Kingfisher, which sells them for 1,500 pounds ($2,800).