Photos: The shape of 'community wind'

Having a good wind resource makes a huge difference in the economics of any wind project. In the 19th century, Hull Wind 1's location held a windmill that dried seawater to create salt for packing locally caught fish. Before the installation of Hull Wind 1, the town's municipal power company ran a small 40-kilowatt windmill that fed electricity to the adjacent high school.

To determine whether a location is suitable for a turbine, communities must conduct a study with a roughly 150-foot meteorological tower to measure the wind resource, said Stern. "Financiers are still coming to grips with this process and the big thing to show them is historical data," he said.

Photo by Martin LaMonica/CNET Networks

Caption by Martin LaMonica