Alternative Energy and Wind Turbines - The Future of Clean Energy

Have you heard the wind go “Yo-o-o-o”?

‘Tis a pitiful sound to hear

Eugene Field, The Night Wind

In the blissful paradise that is San Francisco, the worries of the Third World are often far away. Innovation is still nascent in Silicon Valley, now showing signs of hope with the recent declaration by Senator Barack Obama, President of the United States of America, who is now getting into the groove of things.

The Obama Administration is throwing their full support behind Silicon Valley by investing some of the Government of the United States of America’s “Venture Capital” money in Solar Power Technology, if you will, in the Green Energy Sector as stated in the article “Obama commits billions to solar firms”, published July 4, 2010 11:34 AM PDT by Reuters, CNET News - Green Tech.

This addresses a long standing problem plaguing the Research and Development field in the USA, that being a lack of Venture Capital funding to do research in Alternative Energy Technologies. Especially as the United States of America lags behind the People’s Republic of China in terms of its investment in Alternative Energy Research as stated in the article “America's Green Innovation Problem”, published May 3, 2010, 4:41PM EST By Rob Atkinson and Devon Swezey, BusinessWeek - VIEWPOINT.

The ultimate aim is clear: Wean the US off a dependence of Foreign Oil and produce energy by alternative or otherwise deemed “natural” power sources and create a couple thousand jobs in the process to boot. This news could not come at better time, given the challenges facing the Green Tech field, from a shortage of manpower as stated in the article “People power in short supply for green tech”, published March 26, 2010 8:29 AM PDT by Martin LaMonica, CNET News - Green Tech.

Rare Earth minerals needed to produce photovoltaic and Wind Turbines as stated in the article “Rare-earth metal recycling needed to power green tech”, published May 17, 2010 7:31 AM PDT by Martin LaMonica, CNET News - Green Tech. There is also a general lack of standardized certification, which CompTIA  is trying to address with its Green Energy Certification as stated in the article “CompTIA offering Green IT exam”, published March 25, 2010 10:34 AM PDT by Lance Whitney, CNET News - Green Tech.

Whether the Americans wish to acknowledge these problems or not, one thing is for certain: Silicon Valley in the not-so-sexy Green Energy Race, long the stepchild of Silicon Valley, is very far behind People’s Republic of China in terms of Research and Development. But what of any investment in Wind Energy? Will there by Government of the United States of America backed VC money for Wind Energy Development?

Currently the USA lags behind the People’s Republic of China specifically in terms of its investment in Wind Energy as stated in the article “U.S. wind power growing fast but still lags”, published March 19, 2010 6:28 AM PDT by Reuters, CNET News - Green Tech. It has long been recommended that any investment in Wind Energy be made in the construction of Offshore Wind Turbines.

Notoriously hard to build and very risky propositions for Venture Capitalists, like terrestrial power stations, can reap great benefit if connected together in a massive Power Ring based on research done by the University of Delaware and Stony Brook University as stated in the article “Offshore wind grid is the answer, study says”, published April 7, 2010 9:44 AM PDT by Candace Lombardi, CNET News - Planetary Gear.

The Government of United States of America therefore needs to invest heavily in Wind Power in much the same way it is throwing billions into Solar Power investments, thus making International and Local lending agencies i.e. Banks, Venture Capital Funds more amenable to investors wishing to plunk down the billions required to build out such large installations as is the case in the European Union.

The EU is surging ahead, with large Wind Turbine installations expected to exceed 18.8 Megawatts by 2015 based on estimates by research group Frost and Sullivan, due to the increasing ease of securing Venture Capital money from the Governments of Great Britain and the Government of Germany for such potentially risky projects as stated in the article “Bankers warming up to offshore wind”, published January 21, 2010 9:52 AM PST by Candace Lombardi, CNET News - Green Tech simply put.

But it is easy to see why, despite the now imposed six (6) month moratorium on Offshore Oil Exploration and Drilling in defiance of the Supreme Court Judge’s Orders as stated in the article “Judge blocks Gulf offshore drilling moratorium”, published Tuesday June 22, 2010 By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN, Associated Press Writer, Yahoo! News and confirmed by the article “Big Oil Strikes Back, slams Obama’s drilling plan”, published June 22 2010 by JANE WARDELL and JENNIFER QUINN, Associated Press Writers, Yahoo! News.

 Senator Barack Obama, President of the United States of America is reluctant to invest in Offshore Wind. LNG (Liquid Natural Gas) is plentiful in terms of domestic supply.

According to Ernest Moniz, Director of the prestigious engineering institute, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) recently in Time Magazine, a prestigious USA publication, accounts for 24% of the Electricity Generation within the USA as stated in the article “Fuel of the future?”, published Sunday July 4 2010 by Dwight Bellanfante, Gleaner Writer The Sunday Gleaner.

Additionally, Middle East and Far East interests, hoping to maintain the USA’s drug addict’s dependence on their supply of Cheap Energy, have begun to sequester the Government of United States of America with their abundant supplies. Supplies so plentiful and cheap that it is not only successfully competing with the People’s Republic of Trinidad and Tobago contractually guaranteed supply of LNG to the USA as stated in the article “Rivalry sends Trinidad in search of new LNG markets”, published Saturday, July 4, 2009, The Saturday Gleaner, by Linda Hutchinson-Jafar, Business Writer, The Sunday Gleaner.

This is challenging the very investment in Wind and Solar Energy with LNG supplies so cheap, that it can compete with the LNG extracted from within the USA on the basis of pricing alone, even with USA extracted LNG having ten-year lows as stated in the article “Solar, Wind feel the heat from low natural-gas prices”, published January 29, 2010 12:43 PM PST by Martin LaMonica, CNET News - Green Tech.

John Public does not know much about Senator Barack Obama, President of the United States of America or his advisors, but given the dubious nature of trade with the People’s Republic of China, John Public is very suspicious as to the nature of pricing of these LNG supplies and the way it coincides with the billions that the People’s Republic of China is pumping into its investment in Renewable Energy Research both Solar and Wind.

Could it be that the People’s Republic of China are in effect trying to lull the USA into a state of complacency by giving them a cheap supply to satisfy American “punch drunk” love affair with cheap energy, thereby earning more US dollars to subsidize their own research into this lucrative Green Energy Sector, and eventually becoming the dominant supplier of Green Energy technology to the rest of the Developing World, a kind of Chinese Green Energy Silicon Valley in the future?

Sounds like the plot of a movie………..HollyWood, how mi sound?………..but this is real life, and Governments usually do conspire to gain leverage in any way they can and this is the most obvious way, especially in the lucrative Energy Sector, worth billions of dollars.

Investment in Onshore Wind Installations is still being led by investors in the farming belts of Iowa and other areas such as Texas. In Texas, large swathes of land are now empty due to stiff competition from imported beef and wheat from People’s Republic of China and a drastic cut in US Government Farming subsidies.

These farm land owners have been giving up access to their land to have investors plant these engineering monstrosities on their land on a rental basis, thereby making money from otherwise idle lands by hosting these gigantic wind turbines. Effectively a state subsidy as ironically most of these installations are US Government approved as stated in the article “Wind could be the next great farming subsidy”, published May 19, 2010 12:37 PM PDT by Candace Lombardi, CNET News - Green Tech.

Somewhat similar to here in the Caribbean, where landowners lease land access to Telecom Providers, albeit some are less tardy than others in their payment of said lease money, such as Telecom Provider CLARO, for whom John Public had to negotiate many a settlement with landowners to get them their money on time.

On the flip side of the coin, small wind turbines, now, are all the rage in Pakistan……….well sort of………..based on the article “Pakistan island sees light, puts wind power to work”, published  Thursday July 30, 3:30 am ET, by Hasan Mansoor, Yahoo! News bringing electricity and hope of a better life for the people on the island of Kharochhan, albeit the wind turbines are the work of charity volunteers from the Pakistani charity Action for Humanitarian Development.

This installation, thought, is even better than the life of those living in the cities with frequent power cuts, for albeit poor people, the Wind Turbines have change their lives in terms of their use of mangrove swamp wood for fuel and gave them a nightlife.

Possibly to the delight of the local mongrel dogs, now having less of a reason to bark at anyone who they cannot recognize, as darkness is no longer an excuse not to be out and about at night. Here in Jamaica, Solar/Wind installation is accelerating islandwide with proven benefits as stated in the article “Gone with the wind - Electricity bills cut 90% as windmills blow into Portmore”, published Monday March 16, 2009 by Andrew Wildes, Gleaner Writer, The Jamaica Gleaner.

In the USA, small wind turbines or personal wind turbine installations at small businesses and homes adds immensely to the alleviation of the strain on the power grid as stated in the article “Small wind turbines add megawatts to U.S. Grid”, published May 25, 2010 9:50 AM PDT, by Martin LaMonica, CNET News - Green Tech.

The hope is that the same level of interest can be shown for Offshore Wind Energy eventually in the USA as for Onshore Wind Energy installations, otherwise the USA will be facing a Technology War and not a Trade War with the People’s Republic of China.