Opinion

Wind Energy: The sound of the future

Over the Cut
Tom Halsted
Published: July 25, 2008

Last week, former Vice President Al Gore challenged Americans to end the nation's reliance on carbon-based fuels within ten years.

His startling proposal, supported by hard facts about the disastrous consequences for the American economy and national security of continued reliance on fossil fuels, was met with skepticism by an array of global warming deniers and conservative talk show hosts and their faithful audiences, but with respect and thoughtful analysis by many others.

Only days later came a challenge from T. Boone Pickens, about as un-Gore-like a figure in America as you can imagine: an oil and gas tycoon, a deep-dyed Republican conservative and supporter of right-wing causes.

But Pickens, too, decried the U. S. dependence on fossil fuels, particularly the self-destructive consequences on our economy and national security of our dependence on imported oil. His proposal: to use natural gas instead of gasoline and diesel fuel to power automobiles and trucks, and wind power to take the place of the natural gas now used to power about 22 percent of the nation's electric power plants.

He is now building a 4,000 megawatt wind farm in Texas, which will be the largest in the world, operational in three years and capable of producing enough electricity to power a million homes. There are significant differences between Gore's and Pickens' approaches. Gore argues that the nation's electrical energy needs can all be met by replacing fossil fuels with solar, wind and geothermal power.

The Pickens Plan, while it may serve the nation's interest in eliminating or reducing our reliance on imported fuel, also serves Pickens' own ends: the Texas wind farm will make big money for him, and he owns many natural gas wells. But a major feature of both proposals is their advocacy of the widespread use of wind energy. It was the wind that made Gloucester great.

Almost as soon as the first company of English "adventurers" set foot on Gloucester Harbor's eastern shore in 1623, Gloucestermen were using the wind to take them to and from distant waters to catch the fish that made the port famous — and rich. From the time the first of many thousands of schooners slid down the ways in 1713 until the last one unloaded her catch on a Gloucester pier more than 50 years ago, Gloucestermen used the wind to reap their fortunes from the rich fisheries of the North Atlantic, from the Grand Banks east of Newfoundland to George's Bank off Cape Cod. Winter and summer, Gloucester schooners might beat to windward for days to get to the fishing grounds, catch fish by handline, dory trawl or seine till their holds were filled with cod, halibut or mackerel, and just as likely have to beat back home again, carrying all the sail their masts and rigging would bear in hopes of being first in to fetch the best prices at dockside. The wind took them out to the fishing grounds, and the wind brought them home again.

Now, the fisheries are in trouble, but men and women will continue to fish out of Gloucester. People will still want to eat fish, and fishing boats will still go to sea to catch them, but the kinds of fishing vessels, and how they are propelled and equipped, are likely to change. We won't go back to the days of the schooner and the dory trawl, but we are likely to rediscover ways to use the wind as a substitute for diesel and gasoline for at least some of the work.But wind and solar power are already beginning to make their mark elsewhere in this and many other communities nationwide. In 2003, the Boston Metropolitan Area Planning Council surveyed wind conditions on the North Shore, and found favorable wind power sites on much of Cape Ann. Several wind power projects are in the works: Varian Semiconductor will erect two large turbines on its Blackburn Industrial Park property next year, and Gloucester developer Mac Bell plans to build another on the shore of the Annisquam River.

Almost certainly we will see a revival of proposals to build a wind farm in Ipswich Bay and elsewhere on Cape Ann, and many individuals are looking into ways to reduce their electrical costs by installing solar panels and wind turbines. People find it hard to accept changes in their neighborhoods, particularly when they involve large objects like wind turbines, towering 200 feet or more above the ground or water's surface.

Almost everyone seems to like the idea of wind power, but not if they have to see or hear it in action. They raise unfounded fears about threats to birds and low-flying airplanes, and are sure the noise will be unbearable. A video of a malfunctioning Danish wind turbine exploding on its tower is a popular YouTube destination.

The prospect of wind turbines rising above Nantucket Sound caused well-to-do shorefront landowners on Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket to block the development of New England's first offshore wind farm for years, despite evidence that more than 80 percent of Massachusetts citizens support the idea. The last obstacles are now dropping, however, and developer Cape Wind may soon realize its goal.

Closer to home, a Gloucester acquaintance approached us one day to enlist his help in stopping his next-door neighbor from building a wind turbine on his land. "I like the idea of wind power, but it just won't work here," he said.

Yes, NIMBY was at work. But familiarity breeds appreciation, not contempt.

Get up close to a wind farm, as we did last year at California's San Gorgonio Pass, and you can't help but feel a sense of awe. We parked our car one day off Interstate 10 to stand amid a forest of more than two thousand tall white turbines strewn across miles of rolling hills, performing an endless ballet — slowly, silently rotating in the steady flow of air blowing through the pass. Over the steady rushing of the constant wind we could just make out a faint swish of air as each rotor blade swung slowly by, far overhead.

It was the sound of the future.

Tom Halsted is a regular Times columnist