Friday, March 9, 2007

Tiverton’s Wind Turbine Horizon?

What a great news week for local sustainability efforts. The Sakonnet Times featured a story on the budding artists’ community planned for the Sandy Woods Farm area of Tiverton and their exploration of renewable wind power for the site. (Background story on proposed community is here.)

Aside from this development being a solid example of smart growth in action, the addition of a community renewable energy source to provide ONE HUNDRED PERCENT of their energy needs is icing on the cake. Granted, this just the exploratory stage and tests to gauge wind prevalence and strength are just getting under way, but just the thought of an entire neighborhood being off the grid is a dose of powerful motivation.

I wonder what could be done at some of our public facility locations to mirror these efforts. If tests proved feasible, imagine our schools removing yearly energy costs from their budget through the use of wind and/or solar arrays. Those savings could certainly fund a teacher or three, or maybe a band or art or language program. Portsmouth is actively exploring this. Could we ever be so progressive?

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