Wind Power

As many people look for alternative power sources, I found an article at the Houston Chronicle interesting. City officials in Houston are negotiating a contract to power 1/3 of the city with wind power.

Looking to stabilize a $150 million annual electricity bill, the wind will be part of the annual 1.3 kilowatt hours needed to power city infrastructure.

The article has 6 pages of user comments ranging from loving the idea to absolute hate. I figure with all of the data centers that are there and being built, the city probably needs an alternate source. :)

Somewhat accidentally, I ran across this article in CSE Magazine, describing how wind power is being used to generate hydrogen. The project is a collaboration of Xcel Energy and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

"The facility links two wind turbines to electrolyzers, which pass the wind-generated electricity through water to split the liquid into hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen can be stored and used later to generate electricity from either an internal combustion engine turning a generator or from a fuel cell. In either case, there are no harmful emissions and the only by-product from using the hydrogen fuel is water."

Check out the Houston Chronicle article here