And a lesson from the Wright Brothers.
Wind, solar, hydro, nuclear, and geothermal energy have all been tagged as “alternative’ energies for most of my lifetime, and it’s done all of us a great disservice.
To be clear, when I say “us,” I’m looking at my fellow US citizens.
How, and Why, Wind Works
There’s no shame in not understanding how wind energy works. Not being willing to give something a try because you don’t understand it? Now that’s a real shame. Because that’s how we get left behind. That’s how we get dependent on people (countries) (and I’m looking at China) who are willing to use “new” technologies to run rings around us.
I put “new” in quotes because China is just one of many developed nations that have been using wind, and other “alternative” energies, to heat homes, fuel growth and power their military for more than 25 years. Add Australia, Denmark to that list and put a star next to Brazil, for coming on strong in the past decade.
Here’s why they’re laughing at us – all the way to the bank.
The Best Arguments Against Wind
The most common arguments against wind energy that come from people who are not wind energy engineers – and that includes about 100% of our politicians at a local, state, and federal level. Their primary argument? That wind is not a consistent power supply.
That’s true. The wind does not blow strongly enough, constantly, to provide power when we need it.
But coal doesn’t feed itself into a furnace, either.
Every energy source must be transmitted, metered, and used at some point after it has been generated. You (and your elected representatives) don’t need to be able to diagram an electrical grid to understand energy. You don’t need to understand how wind energy works to understand that we need it. Now.
Our current reliance on coal, natural gas, and to some degree, oil, to power our homes and factories has been dubbed “cheap” and “easy” because the infrastructure was built for those fuels. It will take some work to convert systems to manage wind-generated power.
But here’s the thing. We don’t have to figure out the technology – as noted above, the rest of the world is doing it. We’re not, so we’re falling behind.
What the Wright brothers did was a little harder. Remember them?
Two Dayton, Ohio boys thought they could fly. It took a lot of work. For the first 10+ years they tried, people said they were crazy. When they made it work, people scoffed and said we’d never need airplanes.
When it started to look attractive, some smart leaders said, “we should invest in airports.” And to this day, you can see the economic benefits those first airports brought to towns, large and small, all over the country. And to the world.
What if they’d listened to the naysayers? What if someone in China took the design and said, let’s have a go with this?
What if other countries didn’t build airports? We’d be flying rings around them.
Let’s not be the neanderthals who get left behind.
This is an opinion piece by Weather Guard Lightning Tech CEO Allen Hall. Occasional articles and other industry news content like this is sent to subscribers of the Weather Guard Substack channel. The Weather Guard Substack subscription is free. Sign up here.
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