Blowing in the Wind

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Having a balance between industrial progression and development, and keeping ones environment from being completely polluted and degraded is a delicate task indeed. Pulitzer Prize winner Jared Diamond’s new book, “Collapse” deals with that very topic in the most thoughtful and methodical way I’ve seen yet. In order for economies to produce wealth they must be allowed to conduct business in a way that generates profit. However, they must also be conscious enough to stop themselves from rendering their own well of natural resources barren, thus causing chaos and probable societal collapse. This equation is a strange mix between ones subjective view of where the line between good business sense and environmental degradation is and the objective fact that there can be only a finite amount of resources per well/field.

I’ve written in the past that I felt Kyoto was not as fair as it could have been toward the United States and I’ve supported President Bush’s decision to pull out of it because of that very caveat. But according to this article from the BBC, countries such as Germany are going ahead with keeping to the Kyoto Protocols mandates without much issue.

“Germany has shut down its oldest nuclear reactor as part of the country's plan to phase out nuclear power by 2020.

The 36-year-old 340-megawatt plant in the southwestern town of Obrigheim was turned off at 0758 (0558 GMT), said energy firm EnBW.

It is the second of Germany's 19 reactors to be closed down.

To replace the energy demands, the government is proposing investment in other sources such as wind power.

Germany's nuclear program and its efforts to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels have made it a leader in efforts to fulfill the Kyoto protocol.”

Whenever I think of wind power, I think of uptight and hypocritical Green Cape Codders who complain about energy issues and environmental pollution but then consistently vote against wind power in their own backyard. Admittedly I’m not one who is apt to follow the energy industry so I didn’t realize wind power plants were a viable alternative to nuclear power. The Germans seem to think otherwise.

“Germany already produces 40% of all the world's wind power and the hope is that by 2010, wind will meet 12.5% of German energy needs.

The country has 16,000 wind turbines, mostly concentrated in the north of the country, near the border with Denmark - including the biggest in the world, owned by the Repower company.” (News.bbc.uk)

After reading this article I immediately thought about Iran (I know I’m always thinking about Iran these days but stay with me here). In the run-up to the Iraq War accusations that Hussein was harboring weapons of mass destruction rose above the cacophony of arguments that orbited around the central issue. Hussein’s response was something to the effect of, “No we don’t neither! You people are just plain nuts!” And of course the Bush administrations response was, “Yes you do too! Liar liar oil fields on fire!”

Here we are in the midst of the same argument. The Americans and the Israeli’s are pointing and shouting that Iran is right around the corner from building the dreaded “Arab Bomb” and they are doing under the cover of “peaceful nuclear facilities.” Iran has responded by saying their facilities are indeed peaceful, there are no weapons be built or researched and that they have a right to nuclear power. In fact, the official word from Tehran is that in terms of development and economic growth, nuclear power is essential.

Most conservatives aren’t buying that excuse and are committed to the idea that it’s just a stall tactic so that they can continue to work on a bomb unfettered. Of course most conservatives thought Hussein was stalling too so who knows what the total truth is. However, going back to the BBC article on Germany and wind power, I began to think maybe the Iranian’s really don’t nuclear power.

According to an article published last October on EngergyBulletin.net, “Primarily, it has been figured that some 6500 megawatts of the country’s power output is produced by wind turbines, Iran's Mehr News Agency said.

Head of Iran Renewable Energies Organization, Yusef Armoodeli said Friday that experts are preparing Iran’s wind atlas through compiling data that is obtained from 17 wind farms in Zanjan, Gilan, Qazvin, West Azerbaijan, East Azerbaijan, and Ardebil. “Each wind farm is 40 meters in height”, he added.

“We will build 50 more wind farms in other parts of the country in order to have a fairly accurate calculation of the country’s power production capability”, Armoodeli stated. The first step of the work would be to figure out the wind speed in different areas, he uttered.

So far, he said, 26 points have been marked all over the country, which are estimated to bring the highest amount of power out of winds. “We expect a total of 6500 megawatts for the first stage”, Armoodeli stated, adding that some 120 megawatts have been already produced by the new wind farms.

Meanwhile, he added that the organization is to share the projects with private companies. “It is seen in the Fourth Development Plan that we collect power from private-owned wind farms”. Tavanir has recently accepted offers from several private companies, which tend to take part in wind power production projects, Armoodeli stated.”

The trend across Europe and to some extent in the US is to move away nuclear power and invest renewable sources of energy such as wind. As stated above, it would appear that Iran has already been investing in wind power for their own region and continue to do so at this very moment. “Wind power plants built and installed by Iranian specialists in Armenia’s soil will become operational by the end of June, this year.
Being first of their kind built in the transcaucasian state, the four power plants have cost the country about 3.5 million dollars, the report noted.

Also, Iran will soon start another electricity project in Azerbaijan Republic which consists of the installation of 315 kilometers of transmission lines of power along with the related power stations in the Caspian Sea littoral state, the project is estimated to cost about 75 million dollars.

Iran is currently exporting electricity and industrial electricity equipments to Azerbaijan, Armenia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq. Economic cooperation between Iran and some of the countries in the region are carried out on the basis of barter trade.” (Mehrnews.Ir)

I’m no energy expert but it doesn’t sound like Iran needs nuclear power plants. Their claims for nuclear sovereignty sound like a bunch of hooey blowing in the wind.