Abstract The world's fossil fuel energy resources are diminishing at a faster rate and most importantly the liquid fossil fuel is expected to be finished by 2060s. Moreover, the fossil fuel is directly related to air pollution, land and water degradation. The danger of climate change due to global warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions compels the policy makers, scientists and researchers globally to explore power generation from renewable sources such as wind. Despite significant progresses have been made in power generation using large scale wind turbines recently, domestic scale wind turbines that have immense potentials for standalone power generation are not explored and adequately researched. Therefore, the primary objective of this study is to review and analyse the potentials for power generation by domestic scale wind turbines for the residential and semi-commercial applications. The study reviews the current status of wind characteristics in built-up areas, economic feasibility, aerodynamic and technological limits, local government planning requirement, local and foreign small scale wind turbine manufacturers.