That is the quote from their website. Notice it does not say they represent the interests of American Citizens, home owners or people suffering under the skyrocketing oil prices. If you are seeking relief from utlity bills, looking for ways to unplug your home from the grid at a cost you can afford or looking for methods to reduce the cost of your installation, you'll be hard pressed to find it through this organization.

While on the surface, much of what they do paves the way for the expansion of wind power in the U.S., (they do have a hand in Congress), that legislation is primarily aimed towards insuring their members, wind power manufacturers and large mega-watt turbine sites, are able to expand their businesses. After spending 2 hours at their site, we found little in the way of providing honest, affordable, hands-on classes or tutorials on how the average home owner can unplug from the grid at a price they can afford.

Their President? You might think it would be someone who had built wind generators or worked in the field. Edward Zaelke, the AWEA President Elect as of 2006, is an attorney, not a wind power researcher, scientist or someone who is likely to support legislation that helps home owners install inexpensive home built gens. After all, the AWEA serves manufacturers, not you.

In short, if you are visiting forums like the A-W-H forum at yahoo and expect the people there to help you, you are in for a rude shock. We receive a lot of email from home owners who have been there, asking questions about constructing large, inexpensive garage built wind generators and they usually discourage you from home built wind power and encourage you to either purchase large, extremely expensive solar PV systems, or expensive wind generator gear that is also out of reach for most family budgets.

If you are seeking an affordable solution to rising utility costs and using alternative energy, specifically Wind Power don't bother going to AWEA unless you intend to manufacture wind power systems, in which case, this group of Washington DC sharks may be exactly what the doctor ordered.

When a POLL was opened at their forum, and the majority of voters requested a class on building a wind generator from scratch, the AWEA Moderator banned the person who was going to teach the class on how to build inexpensive wind generators at home.

Read the President of the AWEA's bio at the law firm he works for as a partner. Notice the area circled in red; he represents investers, not you. He represents manufacturers, not you. While it is true that the wind power industry needs a strong voice in Washington, and Mr. Zaelke certainly fits the bill for that job, we have to ask who represents the home owners and folks paying rising utility bills in Washington DC in the alternative energy sector.

If you think it is AWEA, think again.