EDITORIAL: Idea of harnessing the wind fills our sails
We all know Central Texas has its share of windy days. So it’s enlightening to learn that the wind generated here might one day provide sustainable energy for us.
Granted, the frequency and wind speeds here don’t produce the hair-blowing gusts — such as in West Texas — needed to meet all of our energy demands. And fossil fuels still must play a pivotal role. But if industry and legislation keep up with research and technology, we might be closer to harnessing wind and solar energy here more efficiently and effectively.
Baylor University engineers are studying the viability of turning wind into power here. They’re conducting a yearlong wind test at the Region 12 Education Service Center on Highway 6, where they’re modifying wind turbines to try to register power from the slightest breeze.
Baylor professor Kenneth Van Treuren told the Trib’s J.B. Smith he advocates “generating power closer to where we use it.”
We’re all for that. Especially since utilizing our own wind could be far less costly than putting in transmission lines to West Texas at a price tag of $1 million per mile.
The experimental turbines are a good starting point. So are small turbines installed locally by some homeowners. But more could be done if better financial incentives are offered for reverse metering — or selling back of excess wind power by those harnessing it. City ordinances could help, allowing urban homeowners to operate tall turbines.
Sifting through all this, it’s obvious energy policy must yet focus heavily on fossil fuels in the coming decades: natural gas, oil and, yes, coal (hopefully, a much cleaner coal that the industry promises). Our nation is rich in all these.
Renewable energy is on our horizon, but the very foundation of long-range policy and the very bridge to the future of renewables must be based on the here and now of fossil fuels.
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