The Oil Drum

New York's annual average wind power

Wind power is sweeping New York State. From Staten Island testing it on top of the old Fresh Kills Landfill to a TOD NYC original idea of Lady Liberty's torch being powered by wind to wind farms in the far north of the state near Lake Ontario, Wind is popping up all over the state. New York State is poised to become one of the national wind power leaders. Currently it has an installed capacity of 186MW, with an additional 487MW in various stages of planning and an estimated potential of 4,070MW at peak capacity. (AWEA). But realizing that potential has some hurdles.

Baloghblog points us to a local farmer who is facing local opposition to his idea of building a solitary windmill on his property which would power 50-60% of his power needs. I have written about how this NIMBYism toward wind power may be very short-sighted and my idea on how to reframe the wind power debate by powering the Statue of Liberty with wind power.

The link of this debate to peak oil is that the most logical next step after we hit $5-6/gallon gas is to simply use as many plug-in hybrids as possible. This could result in a doubling of electrical demand during off-peak hours, when wind is best.

My question back to the people who are against wind power is what their alternative is: More Dirty Coal? Increasing Dependence on Expensive Natural Gas?

What if every community (County, zip code, congressional district, whatever) needed to deal with its own (let's say at least 50%) energy production (or at least electrical power generation), waste disposal, food production, etc.

In one swift move this would eliminate all those stupid NIMBY fights and political deals which exports pollution and the true environmental costs our modern lifestyle to the poorest communities of this and other countries.

Don't like the aesthetics of windmills, ok how do you like a big coal plant in your backyard?