Since it has sort of a twist ending, I won't discuss what it's about. If you plan to watch it, then do so before reading on...
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My college has had plans for a wind turbine for several years now. Every time they were about ready to pull the trigger and buy one, they decided that the technology was just on the cusp of a super cheap and efficient revolution, so they'd wait. They didn't want to get something that would be obsolete soon. So they waited six months. Then another six months.
After several years of talking about the wind turbine-- telling people how awesome and efficient and cost-effective our new green energy generator would be-- they finally bought one. For what seems like the past year, they've been putting it up.
Now there's a big tower and propeller sitting outside our new agricultural building. But it's not working yet.
It just sits there, sad and impotent.I love seeing the big majestic turbine, a huge flag of green energy rising up above my college. But when is the damn thing going to start turning? WTF is the problem?!? We had some really windy days last week, and it burned me to see all that wind going to waste, NOT generating any power.
I'm sure there are a lot of technical stuff involved in setting up a wind turbine, even though they look relatively simple: a propeller on a big pole turns and generates power.
Still, it seems like we've been waiting forever. What is the hold up?++++
I love the idea of taking something so natural and so annoying, like the wind, and putting it to good use. It seems like the perfect panacea to our energy problems.
A few years ago local residents threw up a fuss over some wind turbines that were going to be built near their neighborhood. They worried about property values and having "40-story towers in their backyards." Seriously? We have a simple, easy, clean, elegant solution to a major energy and environmental problem, and this is all you care about?
Down with progress!!This just goes to show that no matter what great idea technology comes up with, there will always be people who want to stand in its way.
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I personally love driving past farmland and seeing a collection of titanic turbines collecting all that wind power. It makes me happy.
"How can I blow if you won't let me grow?" -Rachel from Friends
1 comment:
I could not agree more! The USA has more energy resources in the wind than any Middle East has in the ground. It is the key to our energy independence. Unfortunately there are two forces at work that are preventing us from taking full advantage of it. The first is the incredibly rich oil industry exerting all the political influence virtually unlimited money can buy. Second is local regulations that prohibit wind turbines because building codes will not let allow the construction of anything taller than what the local fire department's tallest truck can reach. What nonsense!!! Most places will allow cellular phone towers with little concern over their impact on property values and they are horribly ugly. I cannot imagine the uproar if people were denied cellular service because they stopped building cell towers. To all the NIMBY's out there......please consider the countless lives that have been lost and the trillions of dollars going to oil companies and despotic oil regimes propped up by our insatiable need for hydrocarbons that are poisonning our environment and wrecking our climate. Let the towers be built and shake off our dependence on foreign oil and the oppression of millions of people worldwide that those oil profits allow.
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