Wind Beneath My Wings

TOP: A sample wind turbine (small scale)

2nd: Mountaintop turbine (130 feet to top)

3rd: Wind towers really attract the wildlife

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Evil of evils, I'm starting to look at what I will do job-wise this fall when I return "on-grid". Wish I could just retire, but I'm a looong way from that savings-wise.

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I'm looking at a few fields: healthcare (same), life sciences (i.e. DNA stuff), and energy (alternative...wind and solar). So, to get a bit smarter (OK, a LOT smarter) on the energy stuff, I spent this week at a windpower conference in lovely Albany NY. It's always humbling to go into a conference when you know didly-squat about the topic, and this was no exception. Luckily, I had an outstanding initial encounter. As I'm leaving the parking garage to take the lift up to the conference, I hold the door for some guy. He gets in the lift, and asks if I'm going to the conference. We strike up a conversation, and, lo and behold, he had just retired from running the state wind energy program, and is a national expert on windpower. 2 cups of coffee and a McMuffin later, I'm now close to an expert on wind power. Like I was pre-destined to make this energy thing work!

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The conference proceedings were quite interesting. ROI on windmills has become a real thing, given the recent huge spike in energy prices. This conference focused on community wind power (i.e. not commercial utilities, although nothing wrong with that segment either). Many communities, schools, etc have setup municipal windpower utilities to take themselves off the utility grid...many to a substantial ROI. One community that spoke, Hull, MA, < http://www.hullwind.org/ > started with a single windmill to power their school district. Then, they added a second one, on their town landfill (great place!) to power their municipal electricity needs (street lighting, municipal buildings, facilities, etc). Now, they are adding 4 more windmills to power the entire town...every single residence. Sometime in late 2010 they will be totally off the utility grid, at a pricepoint massively less expensive, with a green energy production situation. Very cool stuff, indeed, and it really got me energized about the field.

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Although I've got a lot to learn, I think this may be where I point my initial job search come august. Fascinating stuff, good for humanity (my liberal side coming out), and a quickly expanding field.

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"Somehow not the blow job I expected" Lumpy out