Real Winds of Change

The mid-Texas town of Sweetwater - heretofore famous as the place where the world's largest rattlesnake roundup is held, is fast becoming known as the wind-power capital of the USA. I found this truly fascinating news in an article read while browsing yesterday's New York Times as I ate lunch at the Co-Op. The article Move Over Oil, There's Money in Texas Wind, made me even happier than did my spinach and onion frittata and organic french-fries (and I was really hungry, too!). To discover that

Texas, once the oil capital of North America, is rapidly turning into the capital of wind power. After breakneck growth the last three years, Texas has reached the point that more than 3 percent of its electricity, enough to supply power to one million homes, comes from wind turbines.

Texans are even turning tapped-out oil fields into wind farms, and no less an oilman than Boone Pickens is getting into alternative energy.

“I have the same feelings about wind,” Mr. Pickens said in an interview, “as I had about the best oil field I ever found.” He is planning to build the biggest wind farm in the world, a $10 billion behemoth that could power a small city by itself.

sent me into the rest of my Saturday with a huge grin on my face. Furthermore, this article is but the latest in a series the NYT has been compiling for two years now - and how the hell I missed this incredible listing of articles for so long is beyond me. The answer could easily be that most of the articles are from the Business section, not Science or Environment; it's not a section to which I normally pay much attention. Titled, The Energy Challenge, the stated purpose of the series is to "periodically examine the ways in which the world is, and is not, moving toward a more energy efficient, environmentally benign future." That these articles are mainly from the Business section of the paper is, however, most illuminating. Despite the footdragging on finding new energy sources we've seen in government these past eight and a half years, there is progress being made in many other sectors.

Check out The Energy Challenge as you have the time. The only other article I have so far read in the series, In the Desert, Harnessing the Power of the Sun by Capturing Heat Instead of Light, about a solar thermal installation in the Nevada desert, also has quite lifted my spirits. Tankwoman, take note!! It's happening, baby, it really is!

Technorati Tags: clean energy, energy challenge, New York Times, Sweetwater Texas, wind power,

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