Wind farms hope to restore rural America
I watched an inspiring documentary on PBS this weekend — Harvesting the Wind narrated by Morgan Freeman. The film profiles wind farmers from southwest Minnesota, and how they are harvesting wind energy to provide local power and supplemental income for a decline in crop profitability.
The idea, which has shown initial success, is that wind farming can bring business back to small town America, without multinationals owning all the pie. In Minnesota, more than 25 percent of wind farms are owned by private individuals or cooperatives to keep money within the community.
I would have liked the episode to cover the high costs associated with wind farms, and how innovative cost-cutting must first take place before the concept goes mainstream. Still, the documentary showed farmers that were more than pleased with early results.
Whatever your thoughts on climate change (man-made or natural), I think everyone can agree that paying $3+ per gallon of gasoline sucks. I suspect it will hit $4/gallon this summer. That’s called an energy crisis, and one we need to solve though the exploration of alternative energy, like 60 ¢/gallon natural gas and its lackluster promotion.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqynFkoToeI[/youtube]
2 Comments
It is great to see new alternative energy sources starting to become more common place. We still have a long ways to go, but there are some excellent examples such as Denmark and Google that spark hope for change.
What bothers me is when companies start using environmental issues as a marketing tool.
This is what pisses me off. We have alternative resources, but because of bureaucracy we can’t get it done. I saw yesterday on the news that the sun produces enough energy in 40 mins to supply the whole earth with enough power for 1 year. All we have to do is harvest the energy.
I’m not sure I believe in Global Warming, but if I have to be on the Global Warming band wagon to get some of these things done, count me in.
Screw oil!
Mark