Congressman John Hall hosted a forum on wind energy yesterday.   He began the forum, which will be the first in a series on the issue of renewable energy, by pointing out the issue wasn’t just about energy independence, but independence;  independence from depending on countries in volatile areas for oil or countries with questionable human rights records for loans to pay for that oil. 

Congressman Hall’s home gets the first 1500 kW hours of energy from a wind farm in Atlantic City, NJ.   He was apologetic to the New York home town panelists for not using something in-state, but recounted that he signed up when he had been invited to the opening of the farm to sing his song Power (title of this post is the relevant lyric). 

Between the expertise of the speakers and the questions posed by the audience, the forum was comprehensive — covering the basics of wind energy, wind turbines in industrial contexts, smaller scale wind farms, issues to farmers, state and federal tax incentives, municipal ownership issues, resistance to wind farms, job creation and more. Lots of information can be found at the New York State Energy Resource and Development Authority’s Wind Energy Tool Kit and PowerNaturally.org.

One of the comments in the Times Herald Record online article before the forum:

“the biggest reason companies invest in wind turbines is becuase of the tax incentives”

Well, duh.  People don’t seem to realize that all energy programs are subsidized by the government.  Now we give $14 billion dollars to oil companies, that the congress voted to re-directed instead at renewable energies that won’t destroy our earth.  The way that government encourages development of anything that people deem important is to incentivize it, to reduce the initial hump before the market naturally reduces prices.  And yes people, not just “left wing nut jobs”, have declared reducing carbon output as a worthwhile effort.

New York has a goal of 25% of electricity should generated by renewable resources by 2013.  Right now 1% comes from wind.  At 2 megawatts per turbine, for a goal of 3330 megawatts, 1500 turbines are needed.  Right now there are 370 megawatts generated from 234 turbines (at 5 farms).   20 megawatts provides energy for 6000 homes. 

One of the major areas of resistance to wind farms is the visual impact — Paul Curran of BQEnergy put this into the proper perspective.   Would you rather see this:

or this:

Congressman Hall pointed out the reality that every energy production has some sort of environmental impact.  The question becomes what sort of impact would you prefer.

The House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, to which Rep. Hall has been appointed, will hold its first meeting next week.