The Hidden Cost of Wind Energy

Weaning ourselves from carbon-based energy is not going to be an easy prospect. For a hint of the steep road ahead, read this CNN article about a small rural community in New York that is wrestling with the issues that wind-powered mills place on individuals, whole families even. The passion and ill-will in the middle of this controversy pits father against son, unbelievably enough. Imagine what the issue will do when total strangers are involved.

As we make this painful shift to solar and wind energy, more and more of us are going to have to come to grips with the attitude of "Yeah, I like the idea of solar or wind energy, but not in my backyard." Pivoting solar panels in hot desert climates and towering wind mills within the jet stream HAVE to go somewhere. You'd be hard pressed to swing a dead cat anywhere in the world and not hit some man-made construction. We live on beaches, in mountains, in fields, in deserts, along lakes, on islands. We're everywhere. It just isn't realistic to think that we're going to be able to build a new energy grid outside our sight.

At least not within the next one hundred years. Like most of technology, there's a incessant push to add power while simultaneously shrinking the package. But solar and wind gathering implements are in their infancy stage. They may shrink in years to come, but in the meantime they're going to be an eyesore. They're going to inconvenience us. Like recent high gas prices, maybe people's behavior will change in reaction. Folks will decide to move from jet stream rich countrysides where behemoth turbines spin relentlessly. Sure it's a shame their family lived there for generations and they feel an inherited right to the land. It's equally tragic that oil is running out and the world needs energy from somewhere.

The article is a great wake-up call of the pain to come.