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Friday, June 17, 2011

Wind Power


In Texas, we use a lot of green energy, especially wind. (3% of the energy - or enough to power a million homes - is produced by wind in Texas; Houston is the country's largest municipal consumer of green energy).

When I was driving across my home state of Washington (where hydroelectric power has long been king) earlier this week, I was psyched to see the Wild Horse Wind Farm outside of Ellensburg, Washington. It has 149 turbines and produces enough energy for 80,000 homes.

I snapped a few pictures - it was a beautiful day and a beautiful sight to see all of that green energy being produced.



4 comments:

Kate said...

Yay for wind power! As your pictures demonstrate it is an environmentally responsible and aesthetically responsible way of harnessing energy. I will never understand critics who site wind mill farms as blotches on the American landscape. There is just no comparison to be drawn between the elegance of the wind mill and the sheer ugliness of oil wells and offshore rigs.

Catfish said...

I agree, @Kate. It really was a lovely sight. I know some people say that wind turbines create noise pollution, but this was the middle of nowhere and I didn't hear anything.

Anonymous said...

My mother hit me with a poser a couple weeks ago:

"If wind mills convert wind energy into electricity, then they must TAKE ENERGY out of the wind. Can't that affect the weather systems?"

I didn't know what to say.

Catfish said...

I totally wouldn't know what to say to that either, @ifbyyes!