Sunday, November 25, 2007

Cope Wind


Avadøre Power Station and Middelgrunden Wind Farm, Copenhagen Denmark

This shot is of the wind farm that helps to power the city of Copenhagen. Denmark's wind power is an excellent example of harnessing abundant local renewable resources. The coal burning plant in front of the farm is claimed to be the cleanest in the world. The Danes also claim to have the oldest flag in the world, which fell from the sky after a defeat of the Estonians in 1219, and if you ask any Dane they will swear to have no pollution. Nevertheless , Denmark and subsequently, the city of Copenhagen, have implemented some of the most sustainable forward policies and practices regarding energy production and use, transportation, and lifestyle.

(More information regarding why the Danes are so great will follow in a later post.)

As the power of wind is being harnessed to supply the city of just over one million, local homeowners living in the area of Amager closest to the arcing row of windmills have reported that it is nearly impossible to sell their homes. A professor of mine while studying in Copenhagen and one of these homeowners claimed to "learn to live with it." This "it" being the intense level of noise that these turbines produce when spinning.

Meanwhile, here in the United States, we are still waiting to see if the proposed offshore wind farm that would be located in Nantucket Sound off of Cape Cod Massachusetts will ever produce a watt of electricity.

Picture this: Greenpeace boats being surrounded by local fisherman and the Kennedy's Yachts in protest of the visual decimation of the Sound, a seascape historically known for harboring the largest fleet of whaling vessels the oceans have ever seen, ships dotting the landscape, powered by wind.

More on the Cape Cod Project here:
Pro
Con
What does MIT think?

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