Wind Power: An Important Economic Engine

May 3rd, 2012 by Zachary Shahan

This is quite old — about a year old (ancient in internet time) — but I’m sure it’s as relevant today as it was a year ago. The bottom line of the story: wind power creates jobs, especially in some of the most hard-hit (economically) areas of our country.

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h/t Climate Denial Crock of the Week

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Tags: quickies, Wind Energy Jobs, wind jobs, wind power jobs, wind technicians

About the Author

Zachary Shahan spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as the director/chief editor. Otherwise, he's probably enthusiastically fulfilling his duties as the director/editor of Solar Love, EV Obsession, Planetsave, or Bikocity. Zach is recognized globally as a solar energy, electric car, and wind energy expert. If you would like him to speak at a related conference or event, connect with him via social media. You can connect with Zach on any popular social networking site you like. Links to all of his main social media profiles are on ZacharyShahan.com.

Saurdigger

Nice little video — some important aspects embedded

1) marginal (underutilized or unusable for area purposes) land available
2) land geography suitable to higher wind conditions
3) rural land available (further from town, fewer noise complaints possible)
4) transmission grid already in existence able to support/send large amount of power — as this is a big cost factor in a potential wind farm project, it must have made the town extremely attractive
5) land lease and tax monies going to struggling town making the local population likely to be very supportive

I’m a big booster of wind and I think it can easily produce 20-35% of an area’s electrical energy supply, more if cheap storage available. For most smaller communities, I think a smaller 1-5 turbine locally owned development would be best, but Goldendale’s a nice case to have a video about.