Appalachian Institute for Renewable Energy
Pioneering community-owned renewable energy
With all the discussion about wind energy in North Carolina these days, I just wanted to share a video that I think typifies the extraordinary possibility offered by the partnership of human creativity and wind energy – so with no further adieu I will submit for your viewing pleasure the story of a Malawian teen,
RALEIGH – The N.C. Senate voted today to ban the commercial generation of wind energy in mountain counties. Supporters of the ban argued that the construction of large wind turbines on mountain ridges would ruin the natural beauty of the mountains. Environmentalists say that the state should be encouraging wind power, not limiting it. Read
It’s been a while but AIRE’s community solar demonstration is finally producing electricity and reducing Boone’s carbon footprint. Here’s a brief update and look ahead to some next steps. Keep in mind the purpose of our first project was to illuminate the barriers to community-based renewable energy, and then create solutions to those barriers. Here’s
Winds of Change Dear Editor, Although I disagree with Don Hendershot by about 180 degrees on wind development in the mountains, I’m glad he’s started the conversation again. As Don mentioned, NC State Senators Nesbitt, Queen and Snow attempted to turn the wind energy siting bill, SB1068, into a ban on wind development in western
From Jessilyn Kemp of the North Carolina Conservation Network… Earlier this week we sent you an email about protecting the responsible development of wind energy in North Carolina. We have a quick update and another chance for you to take quick action: //ncconservationnetwork1.org/campaign/windmtns Senate Bill 1068 is essentially a good bill that the environmental community
The raging wind policy war in North Carolina exposes a vast gulf in understanding, and in limited cases, the inability to carry on a civil discourse to explore difference. This has a polarizing effect on the discourse and creates a blind spot for the third way– “distributed generation” or community-based renewable energy. Certainly some favor
If there is any doubt that Washington D.C. is where hyperbole, distortions and silly arguments come home to roost, that doubt disappears as we listen to congressional debate on climate and energy policy. Even some of the statements coming from the Obama team lately inspire a loud “Huh?” Jon Stewart would win a Nobel Prize
In the volatile debate on wind power permitting in North Carolina (SB1068), it seems that the only versions of the story being told are utility-scale wind farms and anti-wind. In other words, it’s a polarized, “all or nothing” framing of the issue as shaped by the media and the over-simplified public rhetoric. Here’s a closer
In this rapidly changing story, WNC wind escapes the senate’s ax in the eleventh hour this afternoon. It now heads back to senate Ag/Environment/Natural Resources Committee. More shortly on this unfolding plot. We’ll have a fully updated analysis and resource page asap. Stay tuned!
Please read the below articles for a description of the setback realized today by North Carolinians seeking clean environmentally-sensitive wind energy development in the Old North State: – //blogs.newsobserver.com/bullseye/state-lawmakers-reject-wind-power