New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg yesterday unveiled a plan to make the city a showcase of “clean energy” by placing windmills and solar panels on skyscrapers, bridges and coastlines throughout the five boroughs. But after analysts realized that this massive project would still fall woefully short of meeting the city’s energy needs, the mayor expanded his proposal to cover city residents as well. “To reach our goal of sustainable energy, we need everyone’s input, literally. If you can ambulate, you can generate.” via globalwarming.org

Maybe that’s because windmills are simply ineffective? Then again, if local government agencies can shove them down the throat of people like us, I’m sure they can do whatever they want in the big city, with a little money and help from other politicians.

The average U.S. citizen completely ignores the regularity with which the automobile kills him, maims him, embroils him with the law and provides mobile shelter for rakes intent on seducing his daughters. He takes it into his garage as fondly as an Arab leading a prize mare into his tent. He woos it with Simoniz, Prestone, Ethyl and rich lubricants — and goes broke trading it in on something flashier an hour after he has made the last payment on the old one.

By last week, this peculiar state of mind had not only sucked thousands of American oil wells dry, stripped the rubber groves of Malaya, produced the world’s most inhuman industry and its most recalcitrant labor union, but had filled U.S. streets with so many automobiles that it was almost impossible to drive one. In some big cities, vast traffic jams never really got untangled from dawn to midnight; the bray of horns, the stink of exhaust fumes, and the crunch of crumpling metal eddied up from them as insistently as the vaporous roar of Niagara.

 (via kottke, via david)

In August, New York Governor George Pataki announced a $17 million aid package to four private companies to develop wind farms in various parts of the state. But, according to Glenn Schleede, president of Energy Market & Policy Analysis, New Yorkers should be wary of the environmental claims of wind power.

The New York Energy Plan estimates that the eight wind farms, with a combined 250 wind turbines, would produce approximately 900,000 kilo-watt hours (kWh) of electricity per year. But this is a drop in the bucket compared to the states total electricity demand. For example, this amount equals 58/100 of 1 percent of the total electricity imported into New York in 2000. It is only 15 percent of the energy that will be produced from a single gas-fired combined cycle plant that is scheduled to come online in Athens, NY in 2003.

The wind power industry often claims that “electricity generated by the wind turbines will displace on a kWh for kWh basis electricity that would be generated by fossil-fuel generating units and any associated emissions.” But that simply is not true, says Schleede. “Such claims are generally exaggerated. For example, they do not take into account that any fossil-fueled generating unit that is kept available to back up the intermittent electricity from the wind farm will be giving off emissions while it is running at less than peak efficiency or in spinning reserve mode. Nor do they take into account the fact that other alternatives for reducing emissions are likely to be far more cost-effective.”

New Yorkers should also be aware that there is growing opposition to wind farms wherever they are proposed, in Europe, Australia and in nearly every state in the U.S., says Schleede. “Opposition is due to a variety of reasons including scenic and property value impairment, noise, bird kills, flicker effects of spinning blades after sunrise and before sunset, potential safety hazards from blade and ice throws, interference with telecommunications, and higher costs of electricity.”

After sitting and listening to all the garbage involved with the proposed windfarms popping up on every corner around me lately, it is nice to see something that actually works. This is exactly what the local, state, and federal government should be focusing on getting inplace instead of handing money to the idiots selling the idea of giant towers in the backyard to poor old farmers. Hey, who can resist the almighty dollar? Even if we could save the environment and all that with windfarms, our world will never look the same again.

Anyway…

I found this link on Mark’s awesome website Modern Homes New England and it makes me want to tear my house down and start over. Kudos to PowerHouse Enterprises for building a home that is healthier for homeowners and their families, is made from sustainable and recycled materials, and built to generate their own power and heat.

That’s the idea behind Blackle. According to a group called Heap Media, a computer exerts less energy displaying a black screen than it does a white screen, so a black Google would conserve a significant amount of energy if multiplied by the number of searches conducted on Google each day.

How much could I save if I just shut my Powerbook and go home?

In the last 24 hours, Google produced 9,921 kilowatt-hours of electricity from the sun.

Simply put, you never have to buy Gasoline again.