Wind Is Fastest Growing Energy Resource

Dec. 31 -- The fastest growing energy source in the world today isn't oil, or coal, or hydrogen, or fuel cells, or any of the whiz-bangers on the frontiers of high technology. In fact, it's the same technology that pushed boats up the Nile River as early as 5000 B.C., and pumped water in China and pulverized grain in ancient Persia around 200 B.C.

It's just wind.

Reports from varying sources in different fields ranging from high finance to environmental organizations to the U.S. Department of Energy all point to the same conclusion. Finally, at least some movers and shakers are beginning to recognize that humans have no choice but to find something other than non-renewable resources to power our cities and factories. We need to shift our emphasis to something that is inexhaustible, available in our own corner of the globe, and non-polluting.

Like wind. There's plenty of it. It's not going to go away. There's no way we can use it all up.

Multiplying Mills

A recent study by the Department of Energy labeled wind the "fastest-growing energy source in the world." In the three year period from 2000 to 2003, wind power capacity increased a whopping 159 percent in Europe and 87 percent in the United States, according to Standard and Poor's Ratings Services.

Nowhere is this shift more pronounced than in Europe. Development of a huge "wind farm" off the English and Welsh coasts took a giant step forward earlier this month when 15 groups bid successfully for the right to participate in the project.

By the time it's completed, at least 1,000 giant wind turbines will be erected in three shallow seas, far enough offshore that it will be hard to see them from the beach. They are expected to produce enough electricity to power four million homes. So one out of every six houses will be powered by wind.

Britain hopes to produce 10 percent of its energy from such "green resources" by 2010.