Wind Energy....What would it look like in you're back yard?

We all hear about it every day on our local and national news, new companies, new jobs, and how Green Energy is going to change the way our world works. Having lived in Southern California many years  wind energy is nothing new. Those huge wind turbines out in the desert, they've been there for years, thousands of them. We always wondered who got electricity from them, our electric bills never said anything about our electricity coming from wind turbines, and if it did come from wind turbines it sure was expensive!

Several years ago in Southern California (Late 90's) we experienced a long period of days with no electricity in our homes for several hours each day because there wasn't enough electric power to supply all the homes. This, even years ago, made us wonder why, with thousands of these wind turbines whipping in the wind just down the road we had no power! Naturally this puts doubts in ones mind about the value of these big ugly wind machines even back then, other than a great tax write off.

A Wind Farm In Your Neighborhood?

Now living in the Mid West its easy to find oneself wondering the same thing about who will get power from wind turbines here? Really the wonder is more about what wind is going to power the new wind turbines! Back in Californian, Palm Springs, the winds are very high 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Are there many places here in the Mid-West  that have the kind of winds needed to make a wind farm work? Well, there must be, they wouldn't put wind turbines in a place that isn't windy all the time, right?

Well, whether there's big wind or not there is certainly big money in wind energy. But, is the manufacturing of electric cars and wind turbines putting the cart before the horse so to speak. It may create jobs but are our current transportation and utility systems ready to support them? Even if Wind energy is capable of providing homes with energy are our current electric grids set up to plug right into these wind turbines? Is the electricity generated from these new energy sources set up so we can plug our new electric vehicle in and charge up away from home?

At a recent visit to a "Renewable Energy Fest", which was primarily focused on the electric car, questions like these were asked asked and not answered, in fact replies where like this, "that's a good question"! Many "Green Energy"companies already exist and are backed by government funding (2.4 billion for electric cars alone). These companies are ready and eager to sell you a $38,000.electric car, or asking your town to install big wind turbines in your back yards but is our current electrical grid system ready, are wind turbines integrated in our systems to actually get the electricity to homes, do we have a system in place to be able to charge these electric cars in a way that is functional? We know we can charge them at our home and drive to our destination, a whopping 30 or 50 miles away, but is there an outlet available at our destination to plug in and charge up so we can get back home?

Are we really ready for electric cars and wind farms or is the "cart before the horse"?

UPCOMING BLOG POST:

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