{"id":4111,"date":"2009-01-31T17:07:12","date_gmt":"2009-01-31T23:07:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress-367309-1145705.cloudwaysapps.com\/?p=4111"},"modified":"2017-08-02T15:56:27","modified_gmt":"2017-08-02T19:56:27","slug":"new-site-finds-wind-energy-gold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/new-site-finds-wind-energy-gold\/","title":{"rendered":"New Site Finds Wind Energy Gold"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Searching<\/a>[social_buttons]There\u2019s gold in them thar hills!<\/h3>\n

But to mine it you first must find it, and a revamped website now provides an extremely easy way to do just that. While all that glitters is indeed not gold, this precious resource is far more valuable \u2013 wind<\/a>.<\/h3>\n

3Tier<\/a>\u2019s website tool FirstLook allows average\u00a0Internet users to mine their neighborhoods for wind power potential. Users familiar with Google Maps will feel right at ease with the software, which offers wind assessment for all of North America. For those of us fooled by intentionally vague oil and gas ads<\/a>, that region includes the US, Canada and Mexico.<\/p>\n

Users can type in their town and state, and the site will direct a cursor to the spot. The wind prospector then zooms in for a more detailed view of the resource\u2019s potential for that area.\u00a0 For greater precision, coordinates can be fed into the search in lieu of a town or state. FirstLook essentially puts a push pin in the area of the user\u2019s choice, providing detailed reports of wind resources at that site.<\/p>\n

\"SpinningThe wind\u2019s potential around that site is represented by what seems a thermal image, with cool blue lying at the lower and of the spectrum. Yellows, oranges and reds are hot zones, places where wind resources are strong and steady. Size matters, as those colors change when users click the height of their theoretical wind turbine<\/a>. The potential for wind power in a given area grows when a taller turbine is selected.<\/p>\n

Loftier turbines harness more energy due to the wind\u2019s rocky relationship with earth\u2019s surface features. Hills and other contours can confound the wind\u2019s flow, acting as ramps which send air currents flowing upward and sideways from their desired path. Offshore wind power owes its great potential to the flat and unobstructed plane the ocean provides.<\/p>\n

While the site\u2019s tools allow a free look at the wind potential in a given area, there is a cost for a far more detailed report of a specific wind site. The detailed report focuses\u00a0the wind\u2019s potential down to the hour<\/em>. The fee may be prohibitive for the average and simply curious user, but reasonable for a town or city investigating its wind potential.<\/p>\n

Many smaller communities are doing just that, seeking to take the lead and responsibility for their own power generation and carbon footprint.<\/p>\n

Here in Massachusetts, the town of Hull<\/a> could make use of 3Tier\u2019s wind evaluation site. The tiny town has plans to add four turbines. A quick survey of Hull with FirstLook shows the town bathed in orange and red, great territory for mining wind. Yet Hull needs no lessons on turbine location and building, as it already has two.<\/p>\n

Hull is a little peninsula of a town on Massachusetts\u2019 south shore. Small in stature, the community yet looms large in its renewable energy ambitions.\u00a0 The town\u2019s two turbines currently provide up to 20 percent of its electrical power. Adding four more towers would bring that to over 100 percent.<\/p>\n

Hull has been model for communities hoping to take control of their own energy future and assume responsibility for climate change.<\/p>\n

While the rush for real gold\u00a0has been\u00a0a romanticized part of our country\u2019s history, it\u2019s effects on the environment are an often untold story. Boom towns sprung up in the west and settlers flocked there as reports of gold filtered eastward. While many a prospector patiently panned for nuggets in streams and rivers, mining companies sprung up also, and with them came strip <\/a>and hydraulic<\/a> mining.<\/p>\n

\"GoldThe wind resources communities and states are now seeking to mine all over the country couldn\u2019t be a starker contrast to the gold sought after nearly 150 years ago. Wind power\u2019s effects on the surrounding environment are counted in nature\u2019s debit column; it provides a clean and renewable power source, replaces dirty fuels and stymies climate change<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Many boomtowns that were a symptom of the gold rush inevitably went bust as their nuggets dwindled. Wind power may ebb and flow at a given site, but will never disappear. Therein lies another value of this resource, the sustainable jobs that appear and remain with the wind towers.<\/p>\n

3Tier\u2019s improved site now offers individuals and communities a better tool with which to strike it rich for the environment and job creation.<\/p>\n

3 turbines credit :\u00a0Iberdrola Renewables NREL\/DOE http:\/\/www.nrel.gov\/data\/pix\/searchpix.cgi?getrec=40046&display_type=verbose&search_reverse=1<\/a><\/p>\n

Gold Rush Poster\u00a0http:\/\/flickr.com\/photos\/waterkant\/249056739\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Prospector http:\/\/flickr.com\/photos\/tooliver\/497511638\/ <\/a><\/p>\n

Single Turbine insert\u00a0http:\/\/flickr.com\/photos\/robyn-gallagher\/232609277\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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