Greg Margida: Anti-Wind but All In for Wind Power

I am a distance runner, and distance runners hate to run into the wind. There is nothing worse than one of those days when the wind seems to be in your face every direction you turn, making eight miles feel more like eighty. But you don’t have to be a distance runner to be with me on this one: it is simple physics that running, or walking, into the wind is more difficult than if the wind just weren’t there.

Me demonstrating that running hurts even when there isn't wind. Image Credit: Jonathan Gilmour

As I mentioned in my first blog, I go to college in Iowa.  Thus, I run most of my miles here. If you have never been to Iowa, believe me when I say that it is VERY windy. This makes it very appropriate that Iowans get 28% of the state’s electricity from wind power. This is the result of 3,447 giant turbines across the state taking that pesky breeze out of your face and putting it into the electrical circuits of 1.5 million homes. The best part of this? The energy we get from wind power replaces energy we would have gotten from burning fossil fuels. According to the American Wind Energy Association, wind energy in Iowa has saved 5.9 million metric tons of CO2 emissions annually. That’s the equivalent to the emissions from 1.3 million cars!

Wind energy is not a phenomenon exclusive to Iowa: It is becoming a more accepted energy source across the world. This is most likely because wind farms create no emissions and use practically no water, making them a more-than-ideal alternative energy source. However, there are still issues to be solved. Namely, you need wind to create wind energy. Thankfully, the people of Iowa have embraced the windiness of their state and used it for the greater good. Still, there is a lot more wind in the state, and around the world, waiting to be harnessed. Once we harness it, the new challenge will be creating an efficient energy grid to distribute wind energy to even the non-windy places.

Climate change, meet your replacement! Image credit: http://www.otrprotrucker.com/files/2013/10/wind-turbines17.jpg

At 37%, electricity is the United States’ biggest contributor to carbon dioxide emissions. Replacing fossil fuels with wind as the source of our electricity would play a major role in slowing down climate change. When we have a problem this big, how can we ignore a solution when it is literally whipping into our faces?

Wind is annoying, especially when it isn’t blowing the way we want it to. It is time for us humans to swallow our pride, and get the wind on our side.

As a runner, I believe it is ok to be “anti-wind”. But now it’s time to be all in for wind energy.

Sources:

• American Wind Energy Association. http://awea.files.cms-plus.com/FileDownloads/pdfs/Iowa.pdf.
  
• Electricity Forum. http://www.electricityforum.com/source-electricity.html

• United States Environmental Protection Agency.  http://www3.epa.gov/climatechange/ghgemissions/gases/co2.html