What's Blowing - Energy Week
Where I live in Germany the landscape is dotted with wind farms. Germany is a leader wind power generation. Spain, the United States, India and Denmark follow close behind. The United Kingdom and Cuba, although both small, also get kudos for adopting wind power strategies that continuously grab headlines. According to the World Wind Energy Association, this renewable energy sector can expect an annual growth rate in this industry to top 20% - it is the fastest-growing energy source in the world.
The obvious environmental advantage is that wind is a clean fuel source that doesn’t pollute. It is also abundantly available as a domestic source of energy. Depending on the project, wind energy is one of the lowest-priced renewable energies available.
So how can you tap in? Well, the possibilities are endless and ever-growing. For starters, you can check with your utility company to see if they offer electricity from renewable sources, it’s likely they do. Choose renewable.
If not available with your utility company, consider switching. Click here for a comprehensive list of Green Power and Pricing in the US by state. When I owned a home stateside I didn’t have many green options in CT. To help bridge the renewable gap, I invested in Green-e certified RECs from Clean and Green to help support the industry.
While large scale wind turbines get lots of press, there are small scale installations available. Quiet Revolution has turbines designed for use on or near buildings. They are about as obtrusive as a flagpole. MagWind has developed a four foot high roof mount turbine that is less obvious than most holiday decorations people put on their houses. Wing Personal Portable Windmill is a prototype designed to be carried with you on the go.
The downsides of wind farms that many people point to is related to noise, aesthetics and wildlife, particularly birds. Technology is continually advancing to address these issues and many have been reduced or resolved. Aesthetics? Well, personally I’d rather look at a wind farm than a big, pollution-spewing coal plant. And as for the birds, it’s true that there have been incidences of birds being killed by turbines. Again, research and technology are addressing these and commercial wind turbines only account for 0.01% to 0.02% of bird deaths in the US. Outdoor cats kill more birds than wind turbines. Putting Wind Power’s Effect on Birds in Perspective addresses this issue very well.
Keep drifting…
- Entire State of Oklahoma Auditioning for Wind Power Play at TreeHugger
- Big Win for Cape Cod at Cape Cod Times
- Wind Power in the UK at the BBC