Dow Chemical Helps To Integrate Wind Energy Further Into Our Grid Mix

Here’s a story that illustrates my main contention about renewable energy: the good guys have already won this war; now it’s time to get the casualties off the battlefield and move on with our lives.

Dow Chemical Company’s decision to power its Freeport, TX facility (the largest integrated chemical manufacturing complex in the Western Hemisphere) with wind energy represents some extremely important signals to the world about the validity of renewable energy:

• Ever-increasing scale means even further declining costs/prices for clean energy.

• Those responsible for corporate profit/loss statements like the fact that the cost of fuel is predictable (actually, it’s better than predictable; it’s free).

• The integration of huge amounts of wind (and solar and the rest) makes better use of existing electricity transmission and distribution infrastructure, and encourages it to get built out even further.

It’s ironic that the fact that the focus here is on Dow Chemical.  Last year I wrote:

I have friends who (advise me to avoid consulting to) historically bad actors.  I’m not convinced; in fact, I don’t think that makes any more sense than asserting that churches shouldn’t accept sinners.

I even have contacts at Dow Chemical.  Historically, it doesn’t get much more morally obnoxious than Dow, unless you have some warped appreciation for agent orange and napalm, two products that caused countless thousands of agonizing deaths, while making their shareholders extremely wealthy over the last half century.  But now, Dow wants to look to sustainability and eco-friendliness in the chemical industry, and they want my advice on how to get there.  I’m happy to oblige.

If we stay away from the organizations that have the greatest potential to change the world for the better, we’re missing an important opportunity.