Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Wind power blows PE's hair back


Well done to Walmer Park Shopping Centre for setting up a row of wind turbines supplied by Eveready to generate electricity for the complex.

Alternative sources of energy have been explored for a while of course, except everyone’s thoughts turned to solar, not wind, power.

But think about it: we are not only known as the Sunshine Coast but we also live in the Windy City. Double the potential.

Some of America’s biggest chain stores are turning their eyes heavenwards for a new take on saving electricity. They are hoping that their immense, flat roofs are an untapped resource that can be used to harness solar power.

Last year several chain stores, including big ones as Wal-Mart and Safeway, installed solar panels on their roofs with a view to generating electricity on a large scale.

Now, we have a great deal more sun than our north American counterparts ... and as for the wind, well, step outside today and our south-wester will your hair back. I can’t remember such a breezy December for years – and those turbines have been whirring like mad up at Walmer Park.

Are any more shopping centres or business up to the challenge?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

every time I see those wind turbines, I wonder how well they are doing... how much power they are supplying to the center...5%? 10%? 25%?

Any way we can find out? a little investigative journalism perhaps, huh? huh? :)

Ordinarylife said...

Excellent - hope more are to follow!

Jeanne said...

Nice to see that at least there is an attempt to harness our famous wind!