Seattle inventor puts forth rooftop wind turbine. Target price tag? $500

The high cost of most alternative energy ideas is a major hurdle to adoption by the masses.

A Seattle-area inventor has a wind turbine that he thinks could be produced and sold for less than $500, according to this story.

His prototype cost only $100 to build.

The turbine would not create a lot of electricity, but perhaps as much as 40 kilowatt hours a month. That's enough to offset the amount of high-efficiency bulbs used in some households.

"It's not going to power the whole house," inventor Chad Maglaque told the Seattle Times. "But it's about doing every little bit."

According to the article, he's entered his wind-turbine idea in Google's "Project 10 to the 100th" contest, which, to celebrate the company's 10th birthday, will award $10 million to five innovative ideas that seek, in simple terms, to change the world.