Red States Are Leading the Wind Energy Charge
Republicans may be lukewarm on climate policy, but they’re all about that wind energy, according to a report on the state of wind power in the U.S. released Tuesday by the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA).
Overall, Texas is the largest wind producer in the country. The five states that got the largest share of their power from wind are all led by Republicans and broke for Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election. They include Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma, and South Dakota, which all got more than 30 percent of their electricity from wind turbines.
That’s well above the nation as a whole, which got 6.3 percent of its energy from wind in 2017 (enough to power 27 million homes, according to AWEA). There are a couple of reasons states like Iowa, Kansas, and the rest of their neighbors are so far ahead of the curve.
The first is there’s a lot of wind on the Plains. If you’ve seen the musical Oklahoma, you know what I’m talking about.
Second, technology is improving. Turbines are getting bigger (like way bigger),which allows them to turn more wind into more energy more regularly.
The third is economics. It has never been cheaper to install a new wind power plant. According to AWEA, the cost of wind power has dropped by 67 percent since 2009.
Extract from the Original article by Brian Kahn , in Earther .
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Heresy!!
Much like this from Kentucky:
"Inside the Kentucky Coal Museum, visitors can peruse plenty of memorabilia on mining and the commonwealth's coal camps. But on the roof, they'll find a display dedicated to an unexpected industry: Solar power .
In a cost-saving move, this museum in eastern Kentucky is embracing the sun as a source of affordable energy and installing approximately 80 solar panels on its roof."
Nice flat wide open spaces are great for producing wind energy. Just wait til the southwest REALLY starts going after solar though.
The Southwest can do both wind and solar. There's a big solar-panel generating station right here in Yuma, and an even bigger mirror/turbine plant on I8 toward Tucson.
There are windmills scattered here and there, but no big farms (to my knowledge).
So I agree that there's huge potential for generating. The problem, as usual, will be storage and transmission.
Nevada the Southern Paiute solar project will produce enough electricity to power 111,000 homes a year. SC Edison has purchased all the electricity that they can produce for the next 25 years.
Navajo nation. One solar field already in operation Kayenta I is producing electricity for 12,000 homes . Kayenta II is being constructed now and should be completed spring of 2019 and will produce electricity for 18,000 homes. A recent agreement between Kayenta (Navajo) and the Salt River Project will expand on the above to produce electricity for in excess of 250,000 homes.
The mountains and valleys are amazing for wind power as well. Having lived in SLC and now living in the Colorado Rockies, I can attest to the wind being strong and seemingly ever-present.
Good. Sensible policies are sensible policies. Wind and solar ARE the future. They should be the present as well.