meet your wind farm: maple ridge wind farm is creating new jobs, lowering taxes and generating income for locals
after my post new yorkers: did you know you could switch to wind energy? a few people asked me about where the wind farms are located and how many there are. there are currently two main wind farms in ny, tess please correct me if i’m mistaken, one is fenner wind farm in madison county, ny and the other is the maple ridge wind farm in lowville, ny.
for anyone who is interested in how people that live in lowville feel about the farms, this video provides some perspective:
some of the main takeaways are:
the wind farms are more like real farms than most people think. individual farmers actually put them on their land (the guy in the video says he receives $6,600 a year for one).
people are proud of them and love the boost to their town economies.
the technicians that handle the turbines are called windsmiths (i never knew!).
the farmers call the turbines “cash cows” because they don’t need to maintain, feed or do anything to them. they just get paid.
the wind farm keeps the town taxes low (in lowville, haha).
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new yorkers - did you know you can switch to wind energy?
i didn’t even know about this option until sam carroll of community energy inc. told me about it at the sustainable nyc store. don’t feel bad if you didn’t either, to quote the late notorious BIG, “if you don’t know, now you know, pigga.”
the fenner wind farm in madison county, ny
okay, i admit i changed up that last part a little bit. now for the question everyone is dying to know that answer to: how much is the switch going to cost? here’s the skinny:
not bad, right?
sam also explained to us that one wind turbine creates enough energy for about 500 families. 5 double OH! and when 500 new households sign up, they build another turbine. so in essence, by switching to wind, you’re also helping put up new turbines.
how fresh would it be if con ed ran a promo where if you could get 500 families in your area to sign up, you could see your turbine being built and customize it with your own patterns, family’s names and pics?
email sam to let him know you want to see that idea come to fruition at new.wind.energy.ny@gmail.com or enroll here.
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on wind energy: warning, this is going to be a sappy one
the fact that obama gave a shoutout to wind and solar energy in his inaugural speech yesterday was a major boost to all of us who have been using our voices (and fingers!) to get the word out on blogs, twitter and in our communities. it’s going to take a lot more work, and i applaud people like wind4me who keep the momentum going - just like the awesome force that we hope to harness.
cheers to everyone who is creating their own force!
“perhaps we cannot raise the winds. but each of us can put up the sail, so that when the wind comes we can catch it.” e. f. schumacher, small is beautiful
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save the world by clubbing
as a follow-up to my post on the opening of greenhouse in soho last week, i wanted to give a full-fledged shoutout to the piezoelectric dance floor at club surya in london. yes, it sounds like something out of an episode of get smart or batman (the original one with adam west), but i am kicking myself for not thinking of this sooner! the brainchild of club4climate (you must, if you do nothing else of importance today, check out this website because it will blow you away) founder andrew charalambous, a.k.a. “dr. earth,” the revolutionary flooring uses quartz crystals and ceramics to transform clubbers’ dancing into electricity.
dr. earth offers free entry to any clubber that can prove he/she walked or used a bicycle to get to his clubs, although i’m not really sure how - perhaps a heartrate reading? surya also has its own wind turbine and solar energy system with plans to surplus power to local citizens.
the non-evil dr. is also planning to open a club4climate party island where eco-clubbers can gather to “save the world lying down and sipping cocktails next to the pool.” it will undoubtedly be expensive to attend a bash there, but i can’t wait until 2010, the slated opening date, to see what eco-innovations the island will reveal.
“unless we stop preaching to people and use an inclusive philosophy we’re never going to create the revolution to combat climate change,” said charalambous to reuters.
“it’s also about creating avenues of thought. imagine what you could achieve if big corporations adopted this kind of initiative.”
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why is this a site?
swyyne has always been an experiment for me. with all of the other super eco sites out there, i've been feeling like i want to contribute something just a bit different. so for now, here are my random musings.
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