As concern over global warming emissions has grown over the past few years, interest in green energy has increased dramatically.  This interest and concurrent investments have spawned any number of pilot programs, new technologies and advanced prototypes. But through it all wind power seems to be the symbolic clean energy choice for the United States. While some advanced solar and geothermal projects have shown promise equivalent to that offered by wind, the ready availability of the wind resource in North America, combined with the sleek, clean, minimalist look of the modern wind turbine, has made it the symbol of our collective clean energy future. 

Unfortunately, that’s not always a good thing.  Several groundbreaking wind projects, most notably the Cape Winds project near Cape Cod, Massachusetts, have met with staunch opposition from nearby locals. Citing such varied concerns as economic losses from depressed tourism, decreased property values due to compromised ocean vistas, and hazards to migratory waterfowl, community organizations teamed with conservation groups at attempted to block the windmills at nearly every turn.

It’s a conflict that has played out at nearly every proposed offshore wind energy project in the United States, which is something of a problem. The vast interior provides cheap land and reliable winds, but forces power generation to areas where the simply isn’t the demand for it. Offshore projects, however, offer the potential for delivering power just outside America’s massive coastal metropolises. Additionally, conditions for offshore turbines allow for more predictable and more reliable wind conditions, meaning that wind power can be generated more consistently, and with less maintenance and repair over the life of a turbine. 

But less than one-hour drive — in good traffic conditions, that is — from the homes that so vehemently opposed Cape Wind, a small community may be setting the model from symbiotic existence between locals and green power projects. In Hull, Massachusetts, on the opposite side of Cape Cod, residents have practically identified themselves as “residents of that windmill town” since the first of two wind turbines went up in 2001. The secret seems to be that, rather than be chosen as a site by an outside conglomerate, the residents of Hull themselves elected to build the windmill after a storm destroyed a previous, smaller windmill that powered the local high school.

"There was a sense that, if you had concerns, you could just go find your neighbor and ask him or her about it. It wasn't some faceless developer coming in,”  says Susan Ovans, publisher of the local Hull Times. And if the town’s current plan to get 100% of its power from wind within the next few years is any indication, this will be the approach that secures America’s green energy future. 

Photo by Nantaskart