Green shoots (renewable energy) rise from brownfields

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://wwwp.dailyclimate.org/tdc-newsroom/2009/10/green-shoots-from-brownfields

Thursday, October 8 2009

Green shoots rise from brownfields

Uncle Sam looks to eliminate the biggest hurdle to expanding renewable energy – the need for suitable sites to place commercial-scale wind and solar farms – by reusing hundreds of old mines, landfills and industrial sites.

By Scott Streater
for the Daily Climate

When the Bethlehem Steel mill in Lackawanna, N.Y., finally shut its doors for good eight years ago, it took away thousands of jobs and left behind a polluted and unsightly mess.

…

Today, the eight turbines at the Steel Wind project crank out enough clean, green electricity to power more than 6,000 homes in western New York, and the 400-foot-tall windmills have become a visual landmark. First Wind, the Newton, Mass.-based company that operates the wind farm with BQ Energy, plans to install six more windmills at the site.

…

Steel Wind is one of the first, but President Obama and Congress are pushing to identify thousands of contaminated landfills and abandoned mines that could be repurposed to house wind farms, solar arrays and geothermal power plants.

Renewable energy is one of the fastest growing sectors of the U.S. economy, with the Energy Information Administration predicting 70 percent growth over the next two decades. But even with that expansion, renewable supplies will provide only a sliver – roughly 5 percent – of the nation's energy needs by 2030, according to the EIA.

…

[thunder rising]

1. This is one way to get around the "aesthetics" argument. Put them on an existing eye-sore

I love it. I would love to see windmills replacing cooling tower plumes all over the US. Even in my back yard.

[OKIsItJustMe]

2. Back in 1999, the EPA coined the term, "Brightfields" (solar farms constructed on "brownfields.")

http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/partners/brightfd.htm