Excellent Resources for Information on Wind Energy

http://www.awea.org/

Here is a nice chart from the website, somewhat surprising:



At times it must seem to green energy producers that they can't win. It is my belief that the use of wind to produce electricity is a huge step for humanity in the direction of achieving a sustainable relationship with nature.

This article brings to mind a story a friend of mine in the energy industry told me. An electric utility wanted to build a hydro plant on a river. The locals fought vehemently against the construction of the hydro plant and were finally able to find a reason to block the construction; the snail sarter. Apparently, in the area of the river where the hydro plant was to be built, an endangered species of fish, the snail darter, had a spawning ground. The locals used the snail darter to block the construction of the hydro plant. Instead of building the hydro plant, Entergy ended up building a coal plant close to the same spot along the river!

I am not suggesting that the protection of endangered species is wrong. However, I think it would have been in the locals' interest to find a way to allow the hydro plant to be built without harming the snail darter. While the coal plant in the story may not have been a threat to the snail darter (if it were then the locals could have used the same arguments to prevent its construction) it will produce millions of tons of pollution above what the hydro plant would have produced.