When T. Boone Pickens announced he wanted to steer the U.S. away from its dependence on foreign oil by creating the world’s largest wind farm, it was an exciting moment—after all, Pickens is a bona fide energy tycoon and has made a career out of oil; the plan signaled a change in the works, an insider from oil recognizing that supply had risen above demand and that the planet can no longer support our use. Of course, Pickens’ investments in alternative energy sources, including wind, were likely a motivator too. But that was two years ago, and now Pickens is canceling—or at the very least postponing—his plans to build the world’s largest wind farm. Instead he’s looking for homes for the almost 700 giant wind turbines he’s already purchased for the now defunct wind farm.

Pickens cites the current financial climate and logistics issues for the change in plans, and in the wind power world, this isn’t the first time money issues have proved fatal. In fact, the recession has seen doors shutting and employees being laid off in wind power companies around the country, where the new technology must battle against high start-up costs. Click here to read more

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Women have had the decision making power for home purchases for ages, but you might be surprised that when it comes to moving toward cleaner energy, women are still the big influencers. According to the recent Women’s Survey on Energy and the Environment, they’re the ones paying the electric bill and making the decisions on energy use in homes and businesses.

The survey commissioned by Women Impacting Public Policy and Women’s Council on Energy and Environment found that women want clean energy and more than half are willing to fork over an extra $30 to make it happen. In part, this is because  women are concerned about air pollution and how it affects their children’s health. The problem is, despite this desire to be more eco-friendly, many women don’t understand our current electricity sources and how they impact our environment.  Click here to read more

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Imagining a wind farm in a wide open space out West is easy, but what about in the middle of an urban area like New York City? Impossible, right? Well, not according to Majid Rashidi, a Cleveland State University mechanical engineer. He designed a new wind turbine that can attach to the sides of the water storage tanks found on many city apartment building rooftops.

Wind power is a green renewable energy alternative that could help cities lower their carbon footprints. In urban settings, turbines often can’t catch enough wind to reach high speeds. But Rashidi’s work in areas where wind would normally be too low thanks to four rotating turbines that accelerate the flow. They could produce 8 kilowatts an hour, a small amount compared to the 2000 kilowatts an hour full-sized turbines can produce, but obviously there’s no place for those behemoths in the city. Click here to read more

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If you’re planning on hitting a movie this Memorial Day weekend and you happen to live in Gibson City, Illinois, you could visit a theater with a very green screen; The Harvest Moon Twin Drive-In Theater recently became the first movie theater in the world to be powered by wind turbines.

As an industry with a heavy environmental impact, the movie and film business has been ripe for an eco-makeover for quite awhile and we’re now starting to see progress in the form of greener sets and movies with a message. The Harvest Moon Twin Drive-In Theater, however, sets a new standard for powering actual movie watching in a better way, leading the way for theaters in states like California that are normally the first for environmental advances. Two turbines (one at 30 feet and the other at 50 feet) fire projectors, lights and popcorn machines at the Harvest Moon by generating most of their wind during the windiest months of the year (also the months that the theater is closed) and receiving the equivalent energy as a sort of “rebate” from the local power company, who stores the wind power, as needed. The eco-minded switch is even more impressive given the fact that drive-in theaters are a dying breed as more Americans chose to view their movies in mega-sized stadiums with access to a range of fast food restaurants. Click here to read more

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