downtoearth-subscribe

Harnessing wind

madison town in New York has been chosen as the site for a new project to harness wind power for producing electricity. Estimated to cost us $16-million, the project has been undertaken by us company pg&e Generating, which owns a fleet of conventional coal and gas-powered plants and some hydroelectric dams besides selling power in the open market.

According to senior vice president of pg&e Christopher R Sauer, customers for power from the Madison project will mainly be those companies and institutions, like universities, who are willing to bear the burden of an additional five or 10 per cent on electric bills in return to be able to take pride in using power that is generated free of pollution.

While farmers who have leased land for the project expect it to boost the local economy, pg&e officials maintain that the basic aim is to encourage the nascent us market for "green power.' Experts point out that improvement in technology over the last 20 years has cut down on the cost of power from wind turbines by more than 80 per cent

Related Content