Originally published August 19 2005
Oregon alternative energy project moves forward
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Bonneville Power Administration in Oregon recently introduced wind turbine-generated energy to generate power.
Although the Bonneville Power Administration attracts criticism for putting power transmission ahead of salmon recovery, it also deserves praise for generating clean energy from wind power.
Producing electricity by sending water through dam turbines is, in a sense, a logical precursor to BPA's leadership in the area of harvesting the energy of the wind.
Even counting its detrimental impacts on migrating salmon, riparian habitat and fishing-dependent communities, hydropower is one of the more benign ways of producing electricity.
In a time when we are becoming ever more aware of the great costs to the global environment of burning carbon- based fossil fuels, making power by harnessing wind and water is increasingly appealing.
BPA recently announced it is ready to interconnect into the Northwest power grid 75 megawatts of new wind power from Wasco in Sherman County, a facility with 50 new wind turbines.
Portland General Electric will be buying all this electricity.
Nationwide, total wind energy generating capacity is approaching 6,500 megawatts.
In addition to posing a hazard to birds, wind farms also definitely fall into the category of things most people do not want in their own backyards for aesthetic reasons.
Thankfully, the windy areas east of the Columbia Gorge that BPA favors for wind farms are comparatively empty.
In Europe, progress is being made in designing wind turbines with horizontal blades -- something like an old-fashioned push lawnmower turned on its side -- that may placed at sea, something worth considering in this country.
Europeans also are eyeing ways of using the ocean's tides and currents to turn power turbines.
In a nation that often seems oblivious to the threat of global warming, America's investment in wind power is an encouraging and welcome sign.
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