What wind power does not do well is scale down. There are abundant small-scale wind turbines available, but there are rarely opportunities for them to perform

What wind power does not do well is scale down. There are abundant small-scale wind turbines available, but there are rarely opportunities for them to perform nearly as well per installation effort & cost, as large 1MW+ turbines mounted on massive towers. A town of 100 households who each set up wind turbines in their backyards are paying >10x what a town of 100 households who buy a share in a wind farm coop for the same amount of electricity are paying. Wind has gotten very cheap very quickly over the years since Altamont Pass was put in with 100kW turbines, and a lot of it is down to bigger turbines and towers. http://www.sunnypanels.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/wind-energy-costs-per-kwh.jpg http://www.sunnypanels.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/wind-e... http://www.power-technology.com/projects/solaronesolar/images/6-wind-power-costs.jpg http://www.power-technology.com/projects/solaronesolar/image... Solar photovoltaic power, on the other hand, scales down fairly well. It doesn't deal with altitude-dependent winds. The economies of scale, while still considerable, are smaller because no matter the scale, all solar photovoltaic facilities involve parts that fit on a shipping pallet.