Two Events On Wind Energy
I’m looking forward to two events down in Santa Barbara this afternoon. First, it’s lunch with Jim Winsayer, CEO of Continental Wind Power, soon to be a 2GreenEnergy marketing services client. I really love what these guys are doing in midsized wind, and I can’t wait to tell their story to organizations that can use their 400 kilowatt turbines to offset the retail price of electricity.
Then it’s off to a presentation by the Eleos Foundation, only a few blocks from the restaurant. Eleos is one of the most effective groups on Earth in terms of placing real, often multi-million-dollar, investments in start-ups in developing countries. Some of their success stories bring tears to my eyes, so I try to attend their events whenever possible. And, though many of these investments have nothing to do with clean energy, the possibility is very much on the table; I’d love to see them, for example, invest in WindStream. Wouldn’t it be great to see a small factory employ a few dozen people in some impoverished city somewhere in Africa, assembling micro-wind turbines that will ultimately bring electric lighting to local people for the first time?
There are places in the world where such turbines could be practical, i.e., in places where grid connections would not be practical. In the U.S., that could include people living in remote homes in the mountains.
And, on poor countries, it could provide a limited amount of power for operating a few lights and recharging cell phones and portable radios. However, it is unlikely that it would ever provide more than a very small percentage of the world’s power requirements. And, it remains to be seen whether it would be better than very small PV systems.