Chasing the Wind: Inside the Alternative Energy Battle - Tapa blanda

Prologue
Arriving like a summer storm, wind energy became an issue both where I live in Florida and where I spend my summers in West Virginia. In the winter of 2006, I began to notice a series of letters to the editor in the weekly newspaper serving Greenbrier County, West Virginia. The letters objected to plans to install a huge wind farm on nearby mountain ridges. My first exposure to wind energy had come years earlier, upon seeing the conglomeration of windmills in a desert valley while driving east from Los Angeles. It was an interesting sight, rather unique, but in my mind just one of those California things. I was amazed to learn that a wind farm already existed in West Virginia and even more so that wind turbines might appear on Florida beaches.
In Lewisburg, West Virginia, I found a battle that was tearing a community apart. The situation dominated the local news. I talked with people for and against the wind farm, went to meetings and hearings, and visited the heads of the opposition groups. In time, I made contact with the wind farm developer to get his perspective. Initially I developed biases against wind energy based on the local situation, since it seemed to do little good for the community and was so divisive. The local politics added to the conflict. Meanwhile, with Al Gore leading the way, the climate change issue became popular, though I wasn’t sure I believed in all that was being said. I wanted to get an understanding of that situation as well.
Then wind energy surfaced as an issue near my home in Florida. NextEra Energy (formerly FPL Group), a corporation that owned a vast percentage of the wind energy capacity in the United States, planned to place turbines on the beach near one of its nuclear power plants. Thus another battle began.
As I expanded my research, I learned about the history of wind power, sought out the experiences that were being had in other parts of the United States, and studied what was going on in Europe—the early world leader in the use of renewable resources. My thinking about wind began to broaden. Wind had its place. But was it going to lead the way in reducing the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, as one gathers from the developers who will profit from it, from the media who report on it, and from the politicians who use it to build their careers? Does it justify the government subsidies it receives?
I needed to expand my perspective and look at other energy resources besides wind. Coal was king in West Virginia, but in Florida the full breath of resources were being explored—coal has been rejected, but natural gas, nuclear, solar, and wind energy were active considerations in the growing demand for power. And what about conservation?
In northern West Virginia, I visited an established wind farm and talked with people who lived nearby. In Greenbrier County I watched a wind farm transform miles of ridgetop. In Florida I took a tour of a planned beachfront wind farm and visited the nearby nuclear power plant. And during all of this, I continued to talk with people on both sides of the issue and read everything I could find. I also attended a forum on wind energy.
My sources included the few books that have been written specifically on the subject, many current newspaper and magazine articles, various technical and economic reports, and the Internet. The latter provided a wide breath of information, some of it opinionated. The subject is controversial and, therefore, searching for the truth was challenging.
This book is the story of wind energy as I have discovered it. I have tried to leave my biases behind and to present the issues so that readers can draw their own conclusions. The issue: Should we believe in wind energy as a significant solution to preventing climate change?