Wind Power Set to Become World's Leading Energy Source
'The European Wind Energy Association and Greenpeace concluded that the world's wind-generating potential -- assuming that only 10 percent of the earth's land area would be available for development -- is double the projected world electricity demand in 2020.'

'The cost of wind-generated electricity has dropped from 38¢ a kilowatt-hour in the early 1980s to roughly 4¢ a kilowatt-hour today on prime wind sites.'

A geonomist (and also a land speculator) jumps at this last statement. Either charge site rent to the annual market value of the prime sites or else have the site rent capitalised into land price plus a speculative component which creates instant dispossession and inequality and could damage the industry before it even gets off the ground. We've already seen land, water, broadcast spectrum, air, and the environment itself effectively 'privatized' under this rent-seeking enclosure and rent-retaining system: wind will soon be next.

A striking feature of modern Germany is the prevalance of wind turbines throughout the countryside. It is all to the good, but they are unsightly.

Wind Power Set to Become World's Leading Energy Source
'The European Wind Energy Association and Greenpeace concluded that the world's wind-generating potential -- assuming that only 10 percent of the earth's land area would be available for development -- is double the projected world electricity demand in 2020.'

'The cost of wind-generated electricity has dropped from 38¢ a kilowatt-hour in the early 1980s to roughly 4¢ a kilowatt-hour today on prime wind sites.'

A geonomist (and also a land speculator) jumps at this last statement. Either charge site rent to the annual market value of the prime sites or else have the site rent capitalised into land price plus a speculative component which creates instant dispossession and inequality and could damage the industry before it even gets off the ground. We've already seen land, water, broadcast spectrum, air, and the environment itself effectively 'privatized' under this rent-seeking enclosure and rent-retaining system: wind will soon be next.

A striking feature of modern Germany is the prevalance of wind turbines throughout the countryside. It is all to the good, but they are unsightly.