The Wind Farmer
My wife's cousin, Dan Hayden, has a great job.
A few years ago, the Danish wind company, Vestas installed a 660 KW Wind Turbine on the Hayden family farm. The company soon realized Dan's mechanical aptitude, people skills, and work ethic, and wisely chose to employ him as a wind turbine technician. Now, in addition to working on the farm, Dan travels from one end of North America to the other fixing wind turbines.
In the years to come, Dan told me, the western shore of Lake Huron will undergo a transformation. Where one wind turbine now stands, hundreds more will spring up in the next twenty years. In 2005 alone, the wind company EPCOR will build a 40MW facility in Kingsbridge that will produce 109,000 megawats of power annually; enough power for 12,000 homes. This one project alone will increase the amount of wind power generated in Ontario by 150 percent. The next time I go out on the lake, I'm taking a "before" picture for Dan. The shoreline will never be the same, and from my perspective, that's a good thing.
In the United States, there are also thousands of wind farms, but when Vice President Dick Cheney claimed that "conservation isn't part of our lifestyle", he furthered the conventional wisdom that wind power is a pipe dream conjured up by tofu-munching treehuggers in California.
The wind farmers I know don't wear birkenstocks or much granola bars; they're simply shrewd farmers who know a good deal when they see it. They care about their communities and the land, and they want a better future for their children.
For Dan, the booming wind power industry could mean a lifetime of job security and stories of high-altitude adventure. For the rest of us, it could mean cleaner air, cleaner water, more local jobs, and greater energy independence.
Read About The Kingsbridge Project Here:
A few years ago, the Danish wind company, Vestas installed a 660 KW Wind Turbine on the Hayden family farm. The company soon realized Dan's mechanical aptitude, people skills, and work ethic, and wisely chose to employ him as a wind turbine technician. Now, in addition to working on the farm, Dan travels from one end of North America to the other fixing wind turbines.
In the years to come, Dan told me, the western shore of Lake Huron will undergo a transformation. Where one wind turbine now stands, hundreds more will spring up in the next twenty years. In 2005 alone, the wind company EPCOR will build a 40MW facility in Kingsbridge that will produce 109,000 megawats of power annually; enough power for 12,000 homes. This one project alone will increase the amount of wind power generated in Ontario by 150 percent. The next time I go out on the lake, I'm taking a "before" picture for Dan. The shoreline will never be the same, and from my perspective, that's a good thing.
In the United States, there are also thousands of wind farms, but when Vice President Dick Cheney claimed that "conservation isn't part of our lifestyle", he furthered the conventional wisdom that wind power is a pipe dream conjured up by tofu-munching treehuggers in California.
The wind farmers I know don't wear birkenstocks or much granola bars; they're simply shrewd farmers who know a good deal when they see it. They care about their communities and the land, and they want a better future for their children.
For Dan, the booming wind power industry could mean a lifetime of job security and stories of high-altitude adventure. For the rest of us, it could mean cleaner air, cleaner water, more local jobs, and greater energy independence.
Read About The Kingsbridge Project Here:
