Startup Offers Small Wind-Energy Alternative

Kellogg Warner is attempting to blow new life into the small wind turbine industry.

Warner is the president and founder of Deerpath Energy Inc., a startup in Marblehead that is pushing small wind turbines, which have largely been limited to residential customers, to commercial outlets and municipalities seeking alternative energies.

Commercially speaking, small wind turbines have lived in the shadow of their utility-sized cousins installed in large wind farms. But in the face of opposition groups holding the development of projects like Cape Wind and soaring fuel costs, Warner said groups of small turbines, which can be cheaper than power derived from solar panels, could appeal to businesses such as big-box retailers as well as individual cities and towns.