Wind energy projects developed by small political subdivisions of cities and townships, rural electrification cooperatives, and other municipal or quasi-municipal entities or municipally owned corporations that provide electric transmission, distribution or generation services.

A landowner wind energy association, or LWEA, consists of a group of landowners who have decided to work together to have more control over the wind leasing process than they would have individually.

Transmitting bulk electricity from a generating plant to a distribution system across a third party's lines.

A unit of electrical power: 1/1000 kW

A term and calculation used to describe how wind speed increases with height above the surface of the earth. The degree of wind shear is a factor of the complexity of the terrain as well as the actual heights measured. Wind shear increases as friction between the wind and the ground becomes greater. Wind shear is not a measure of the wind speed at a site.

A way of quantifying on a scale the strength of the wind at a project site. The Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory defines the wind class at a site on a scale from 1 to 7 (1 being low and 7 being high) based on average wind speed and power density to offer guidance to potential developers as to where wind projects might be feasible.

A wind rose shows the direction and the frequency of that direction that the wind blows at a particular location. Wind roses are used in wind projects to portray the amount of energy that comes into the wind project from various directions.

The space behind a wind turbine that is marked by decreased wind power capacity due to the fact that the turbine itself used the energy in turning the blades. The wind behind the turbine, in its wake, is less effective at generating energy for a certain distance in the downwind direction due to turbulence created by the upwind machine.

The process of separating a service into component parts (generation, transmission, distribution, ancillary services, etc) to allow customers to choose where to buy each service separately. Utility unbundling, overseen by regulators, generally requires utilities to ensure that the price of each service accurately reflects the cost of that service (plus a margin for profit).