Wind Power

The weather has been, as they say, frightful the last couple of days. First we get an ice storm that wreaks havoc with the trees and the roads and then the cold air blows in sub-zero temperatures. And I mean blows in, laddies. After fixing the thermocouple in the furnace this morning (how's that for timing?), I went outside to feed and water the animals and get the Sunday paper. My lane is almost a 1/4 mile long and the walk back into the wind was just plain brutal. It was still below zero and the wind was gusting something like thirty miles per hour. I wish I could do something with the wind instead of watching the curtains blow in the old farmhouse on days like today.

There is someone doing something with the wind. These guys have built a couple of rigs to attempt to set the wind powered land speed record and the ice speed record. The land record got rained out this year but they're planning on an ice assault in January of '09 in Montana. The machines are basically composite construction ice boats built with solid type sails like an airplane wing. They sure look cool. If the high mileage team had some deeper pockets, I'd look into similar construction techniques for our project. The Ecotricity folks aren't just racers, however. They're all about green energy sources, zero carbon emissions and wind turbines for the urban dweller. I know I'd rather watch a wind turbine spin instead of my electric meter on days like today.