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Viewing Wind Power Category
Renewable resources. Environmentally friendly power. These terms are tossed around like salad almost on a daily basis. The truth is renewable energy sources are finally being recognized as invaluable resources. Smart cars; solar panels the uses are finally getting closer to home; but commercial uses for friendly power have a long history. The hydroelectric power of Niagara Falls for example has long been utilized, its power first harnessed in 1759: to turn a small water wheel and in turn power a small sawmill. But it wasn't until 1895 that that the electricity generated by Niagara Falls was first transmitted to be used some distance away.
"People ask us how we can live like this. Jeepers, I just come home, turn on the lights, grab a cold beer from the refrigerator and watch the news on TV," Dale Kittleson, 47, said. "The only difference is when you are making your own energy, you are more aware of the energy you use, adding, "We didn't come out here wanting to freeze in the dark." Kittleson and the others are in tune with the wind, the sun and kilowatt hours. Micro-generation is what is know as living off grid. Michelle Kenyon Brown, executive director of IRENEW, a nonprofit organization in Iowa City that promotes renewable energy says,
Wind pattern has always been an important determinant of location, both for traditional windmills and for more modern energy-generating turbines. To ensure more reliable wind availability, turbines are placed in coastal areas, on ridges, and in other windy sites. Texas has the most wind generation of all US states. The success of this alternative source has stimulated the growth of wind farms, and transmission lines are planned to further expand to include more populated areas. But what happens when the wind just doesn’t blow? At the end of February, Texans had an opportunity to find out firsthand. Just as the wind declined, a weather system caused temperatures to drop. The combination of decreased supply and increased demand caused Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) to stop service.
But Delaware's News Journal found that this wind energy program - like many of those currently available for offset initiatives - is misleading. It turns out that wind energy credits bought from Perco do not directly correspond to an actual measure of electricity. Instead, each credit goes towards commodity certificates that are traded on Wall Street. The credit purchase represents an investment in a wind energy company, but not a directive to that company to produce a specific amount of energy. And while it is true that investment in the wind energy sector is always a good thing, it is disheartening that none of the participants understood the deal that they were entering.
In the US the energy company Finavera were granted the first ever license issued by the United States Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for a wave, tidal or current energy project in December. The license will allow Finevera to establish a one Mega Watt demonstration plant 3.7 nautical miles offshore of Waatch Point in Makah Bay, near the city of Neah Bay, Washington. It is expected to generate enough energy to supply about 150 homes in Neah Bay each year. The power will come from clusters of individual bouys, which Finavera have named Aquabouys, and are similar to navigational bouys designed to survive decades of major storms. The movement of the waves forces pressurized seawater into the bouys to drive a turbine, and the electricity generated is transmitted to shore by means of a secure, undersea transmission line. The potential with this system is that wave plants can be continually scaled up by adding further bouys, and due to their size, the "power plant arrays would be visible to allow for safe navigation and no more noticeable than a small fleet of fishing boats."
Songbirds are one hard-hit group. A recent study shows that nocturnal birds are particularly susceptible to mortality. In some areas, the species at risk are raptors, whose populations are typically long-lived and slow to recover. In addition, bats are caught in the blades where wind turbines are placed in forested ridges. In the Mid-Atlantic Highlands, a large greenbelt area straddling a number of eastern US states, an average of 22-60 bats are killed per turbine each year.
The Decision Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) Secretary Roderick Bremby denied Sunflower Electric Corporation’s plans to build two new coal-fired plants in western Kansas because of concerns over climate change and the environment. While other states have rejected building similar plants, Bremby’s decision marks the first time a federal government agency denied a plant’s permit on the grounds of its carbon dioxide emissions. The state of Kansas does not currently regulate CO2 discharges.
 Look up there, on the rooftop! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a wind-powered whirlybird! Many of you may have seen wind farms or heard of wind power's potential. It doesn't stop in the fields a more and more commonly seen item on rooftops happens to be the propeller-like turbines on a smaller scale, of course. Are we ready to utilize this power residentially, though? It may come down to where you live, or it may come down to research and development flaws. All wind turbines vibrate, and they transmit this vibration to the structure on which they're attached. All rooftops create turbulence that interferes with the wind turbine's operation. Even if engineers were able to design a sophisticated dampening system that isolated the wind turbine from the structure, they couldn't eliminate the power robbing and damaging turbulence created by the building. An extreme, but not uncommon, example of the damage wind turbines can do to anything they're directly attached to comes from New York, where a homeowner's Air turbine destroyed itself on a stormy night before crashing through his roof. He decided not to replace it. So rooftop turbines, while a great idea, need some tweaking before we can expect to see them dotting rooftops all around town. Wind farms, however, have experienced much more success.
Source: Environmental News Network, Endless Energy - BC Could Be Energy Self-Sufficient By 2025.  Five years ago, my family purchased a ranch house in the country. There were no houses across the road, and at night, visibility beyond our front porch was zero. We were thrilled, having moved from the second-busiest street in our town, and loved to watch the night sky come alive. Fast-forward to present day. There is now a subdivision directly across the road, each house built grander than the last, and three more very impressive houses all in a row next to it. Of course, all of these mailboxes went into our yard, since it's a rural area, and our property value increased, but that's beside the point, and definitely not why we moved to the country. Where did this new housing boom come from, and what is it doing to our environment? Was it really so long ago that we lived in a world in which families squeezed into ranch houses, kids shared bedrooms and didn't think anything about it (other than squabbles over cleaning and décor) and new homes were rare and usually part of a huge subdivision in which they all looked alike? Now it seems as though kids are building houses right out of college -- even high school. Old houses on the market sit empty, while new homes go up faster and faster and sell for unbelievably high prices. |
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Living off grid can be comfortable, as homes in a 16-square-mile area of Decorah, Iowa know. Supplementing energy needs using the powers of the Earth, one considers storage before turning on any appliances and electrical devices.
As the Dutch have known for many years, when there is no wind - the windmill stops turning. Historically, that was a time for the miller to turn to other tasks. After all, what can you do? But wind as an alternative energy source means that a lack of wind may have much greater effects.
The Philadelphia International Airport has won the admiration of environmentally-minded citizens everywhere for its efforts to minimize its carbon footprint. Calvin M. Davenger Jr. - the Deputy Director of Aviation Planning and Environmental Stewardship - has overseen the implementation of policies such as a timer system for airport lights and a fleet of hybrid cars for employees. Last March, the airport announced its most ambitious project yet: a $216,514 wind energy program that would allegedly offset more than 14 million pounds of carbon dioxide.
While solar and wind power plants are now becoming increasingly common, one as yet untapped area of renewable energy is wave energy - using the kinetic energy of waves to generate electricity, but recent technological advancements could soon mean wave energy becomes a far more viable option. 
Wind turbines are hailed as a environmentally friendly source of renewable energy. And while gales will continue to blow and generate power, there are hidden 
With coal-fired power plants producing almost half of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions, a recent decision to deny the permit for two new coal-based facilities in Kansas is sparking debate over greenhouse gases and renewable energy.
By the year 2025, the Province of British Columbia could create enough energy to be completely energy self-sufficient while also reducing greenhouse gas emissions to before year 2000 levels. This energy would be from renewable resources alone and would not cause any negative social or economic impact. They are calling this economy a 'bio-electric' economy because the energy will come mainly from renewable electricity generation and biomass energy, but will also include wind, solar, geothermal and ocean energy.