New financing programs are opening the door to the widespread adoption of wind power, the Department of Energy reports.

Third-party financing and leasing options are enabling companies and individuals to generate wind power on their properties, according to The 2016 Distributed Wind Market Report's fifth annual analysis of distributed wind power. These options provide flexibility that eases the financial and logistical burdens of installing and operating wind turbines.

Two examples are New York-based United Wind, which offers leases to farmers and others to install wind turbines on their land with little to no upfront costs, and Ohio's One Energy Enterprises LLC, which offers power purchase agreements so industrial companies can install large turbines at their facilities. Both secured significant financing in 2016, the report notes.

"New financing options helped rooftop solar become widespread," said the report's lead author, Alice Orrell, an energy analyst at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. "Now they could also help make distributed wind more commonplace and expand its role in the national energy mix."

Click here to view the report in its entirety.