A new lakefront, second home near Fort Worth looks like a rustic cabin, but will be powered by a very modern piece of equipment: a small wind turbine.

The house, called the Zero-Energy Casita, sits near the edge of Eagle Mountain Lake and measures 1,051 square feet. A 3.7 kilowatt wind turbine—with curved blades to reduce noise--will provide electricity for the home. Any excess power the turbine generates will be sold to the grid and when the wind isn’t blowing, the house will be able to get power from the grid.

Ferrier Custom Homes built the house, which is nearing completion and was open to the public earlier this month. The casita features well-insulated windows and structural insulated panels in order to minimize energy needs.

Don Ferrier also built the first LEED Platinum home in Texas and was named the Dallas HBA's 2010 Green Builder of Year. He has focused on building sustainable, high-performance homes since 1984.

The turbine's costs will be substantially offset by local and federal rebates and tax deductions.

If you want to take advantage of the Texas winds and explore a Texas home wind power installation, fill out the online form at DASolar.com and one of our Texas wind energy pros will contact you to set up a free estimate.

Our wind energy contractor will also walk you through the Texas energy tax credit incentives that are available for residential wind power installations.

Small-scale wind power is on the rise in the United States--it grew 15 percent in 2009. Catch the wind and make it work for you!

(Photo from zeroenergycasita.com)