Friday, October 16, 2009

WINDFARMS AND STARBUCKS

World's largest, 781.5 megawatt wind farm, located in West Texas USA.
Ranchers in west Texas are resorting to leasing their land to energy companies to "break even". To some though, "selling out" causes upset.

Personally, I love the idea that wind farms can revitalize a community and help maintain an old mainstay industry and culture of ranching and cowboys. The wild west is staying wild by accepting something modern.
On the other hand it definitely does change the landscape a bit. Thoughts?

Read more about the "Starbucks Rule" for siting wind farms.

-via Treehugger

Business Week-
"Turns out there's something called the Starbucks Rule when it comes to siting wind farms. He said Suzlon and its rivals plot where Starbucks are in the general area and then make sure their project is at least 30 miles away. Any closer and there'd be too many NIMBYs (not in my backyarders) who'd object to having their views spoiled by a cluster of 265-foot-tall wind towers."


Video credit:Sunday Morning Show

2 comments:

Algosome said...

They already changed the landscape by chasing off the native Americans, bringing in cattle and putting up fences, even before all the oil wells were brought in. 50 or 100 years from now they'll be complaining how some successor technology. If they really understood what conservatism means, they'd be signing conservation easements on their ranchlands, replacing their cattle by bison (steaks for $13/pound at HEB Market!), and complaining how the wind farms disrupt the thermal updrafts used by hawks and vultures that are an equal part of the scenery there.

Amy said...

Hi,

Thanks so much for your blog. I am writing to invite you to a free sneak-preview webinar on Thursday, November 5, 2009 at 12:30pm EST about green commercial building by Robert Watson, the “Father of LEED” called “Building a Sustainable Future: Progress & Trends Toward Improving the Environmental Footprint of Commercial Buildings”: http://bit.ly/GreenBuilding_Webinar_Nov5

In these fast-changing times it is imperative we have measurement around whether green building choices both provide a very high return on investment and a significant decrease in our environmental impact. This webinar effectively demonstrates LEED certified green building accomplishes these goals while outlining next steps for LEED certification to further contribute to reducing the environmental footprint of buildings in the U.S. and worldwide.

During this 60 minute webinar a sneak-preview of the Green Building Market & Impact Report will be presented by the report’s author Robert Watson, GreenerBuildings.com Editor and industry leader. This report is an integrated assessment of the land, water, energy, material and indoor environmental impacts of the LEED for New Construction (LEED NC), Core & Shell (LEED CS) and Existing Building (LEED EB) standards.

JohnsonDiversey President & CEO Ed Lonergan will also highlight the importance of sustainability in today’s business environment, offering insights and examples of the company’s work toward improving the sustainability of its customers’ facilities as well as its own. This presentation will detail JohnsonDiversey’s own focus on LEED certification for many of its facilities worldwide.

Please visit http://bit.ly/GreenBuilding_Webinar_Nov5 for more information or to sign up. I would love your help spreading the word! It would be great if you could blog about the webinar and provide the signup URL before next Thursday and/or add it to your events section. Also please forward this message to anyone you think would be interested in learning more about LEED certification and green commercial building. If you have a Facebook or Twitter account please also mention the conference there! There are some embeddable banners, a widget that includes Robert Watson’s Twitter feed, and other assets here: www.influencexchange.com/greenbuilding

I look forward to connecting with you. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask!

Thanks,
Amy