Buy Wind Turbine Insurance Facts
Before you buy a wind turbine, you need to research insurance requirements first. Most people do not know about insurance requirements for a wind turbine until after they buy a wind turbine. Do not make that mistake.
Before I go on, you are probably wondering why insurance is even needed. It is not some conspiracy by energy companies to torture you for wanting to install your own wind turbine or solar panels. Whether you need additional insurance or not all comes down to how you are wiring up your wind turbine or solar panel system. If you are using a battery bank and not selling your power back to the power company, then you need not worry about having additional insurance coverage. The only time you are going to need additional insurance is if you are wiring your wind turbine up to the power grid in order to make your meter “run backwards”.
In more and more communities across the country, the local electric company is demanding people have an additional million dollar insurance policy before connecting to the power grid. One such state I know this is common practice in is Texas.
A friend of mine wanted to install a wind generator for electricity but the local power company in Texas would not let him connect to the power grid unless he could show that he had a million dollar insurance policy. He called every insurance company he could think of and no one had ever heard of this insurance policy that he can buy. The reason that he wanted to connect directly to the power grid was so that he did not use a battery bank but instead could sell the energy produced back to the electric company.
This is how to solve the problem if you find yourself in this same situation in Texas. Call your local power company and ask for them to install a reverse meter. You need a meter that is capable of running backwards and giving you proper credit, older meters do not have this capability. Next, you need to get the legally required wiring. The county will inspect your wiring. The correct wiring is required because the electric company does not want one of their linemen electrocuted who is down from your solar power or wind power generator.
Here is where you can save yourself a lot of headache. Do not call your insurance company and ask about a wind turbine or solar panel policy. There is no policy like this. What you do is get an umbrella policy on your homeowner’s insurance. This type of policy covers more than what your homeowner’s insurance policy does. You might have an insurance company that calls this “secondary insurance”. Use the Internet to find an insurance company that will sell such a policy to you.
Quality standards exist for how you must connect to the power grid for the safety of everyone such as: staying in phase with the power grid, and a reverse power relay and automatic transfer switch that disconnects you from the power grid in case of a black out. A good “How to make your own wind turbine” book will tell you everything you need to know. If you buy a wind turbine already built, then the manufacturer will tell you what you need to know.
Written by Sean Hernandez. Building your own wind turbine is very easy. For a review of the best guides on how to build a wind turbine go to buy wind turbine
