Many folks have but one image come to mind when they hear the words "wind turbine."  That is a propeller-looking device that faces into the wind.  In some places, mile after mile of these futuristic wind turbines stretch out past the horizon.
But there is an alternative, one that has been around in a practical form since at least the 1930's, called a Vertical Wind Turbine. They require considerably less space and apparently much lower maintenance costs.
Here's one called a Helix Wind Turbine, if you take a peek you will see how little space it requires, compared to the propeller types. 
Greensburg, Kansas will be using a ground-level version to light their city building.
With the billions of $ now going into smart-grid transmission lines, no doubt there will be tens of thousands more transmission poles stretching as far as the eye can see in remote places across the nation.
While it would be impractical to put a prop-type turbine atop every power pole, these vertical versions might be a very practical application.
The idea is, as long as we are putting those poles up, why not top them with a small vertical generator? 
While these would not be the giant versions we see in vast fields these days, the sum of so many smaller units could equal or surpass the capacity of the traditional models. Those thousands upon thousands of transmisson pole generators would constitute a HUGE amount of energy, along with a new class of jobs.   Putting the generators atop the transmission poles also eliminates the need to build transmission lines to get that energy to the public, they are, inherently, already attached.
Just food for thought.