A Mighty Wind

Renewable energy skepticism is based on some outright falsehoods.

Solar energy dies when it gets cloudy. (False.)  Solar energy is always intermittent. (False.)

But here's the most important fallacy of all.

Renewable energy needs the grid.

It doesn't.

Most of China's abundant wind energy is not attached to the grid. Africa is being transformed by off-the-grid energy. America's military is increasingly powered by solar energy when it is “in-country.” You don't need to recharge your iPhone at the wall if you don't want to.

And thus we come to residential wind.

Reading Annie Proulx' Bird Cloud  I was impressed by the strength of the winds whipping across her Wyoming property. She writes that she was taken off-the-grid for all her telecommunications, by satellites. There's no reason she has to be on-the-grid for her energy needs, either.

There are now 14 different suppliers of residential wind turbines. (Here's a good buyer's guide.). Right now most cost $35,000 and up, meaning they're a major capital expense for the homeowner, and energy storage systems need to improve. But costs are going to decline as manufacturers start scaling their operations, and as installations become something other than one-offs.

But sales are accelerating, quadrupling from 2009 to 2010. Distribution channels and installation experts are starting to emerge.

The industry worries about local ordinances for allowing turbines  but there are vast, sparsely-populated territories in this country – places like Bird Cloud – where farmers, ranchers, retirees, and folks from the city are just begging for this kind of stuff.

I remember some years ago, when my late father-in-law built his country dream house, how the phone company demanded thousands of dollars to get him a line. He said the heck with it and got a cell phone. If he were here today, he'd probably tell the electric company the same thing.

The smart grid may not emerge until many places have rendered it obsolete.