City of Houston Gives Wind Power a Turn HOUSTON -- The heart of the U.S. oil patch on Tuesday began using wind-powered electricity for about a fourth of its municipal power needs at a lower price than it is paying for power produced from coal and natural gas, city officials said. The move shows how renewable energy's prospects are improving at a time of soaring fossil-fuel prices. Long derided as an expensive niche, wind power now is moving closer to the mainstream. Houston's push also underscores how far renewable energy has to go. Wind power has taken hold more in Texas than in many other states, both because the western part of the state is breezy and because Texas has enacted a mandate designed to boost wind-power generation. The federal government has rejected calls to implement that kind of mandate nationally. Under a five-year contract, Houston will pay a fixed price of 7.5 cents per kilowatt hour for the wind-generated electricity, 21% lower than the 9.5 cents per kilowatt hour it pays for conventional power.
HOUSTON -- The heart of the U.S. oil patch on Tuesday began using wind-powered electricity for about a fourth of its municipal power needs at a lower price than it is paying for power produced from coal and natural gas, city officials said.
The move shows how renewable energy's prospects are improving at a time of soaring fossil-fuel prices. Long derided as an expensive niche, wind power now is moving closer to the mainstream.
Houston's push also underscores how far renewable energy has to go. Wind power has taken hold more in Texas than in many other states, both because the western part of the state is breezy and because Texas has enacted a mandate designed to boost wind-power generation. The federal government has rejected calls to implement that kind of mandate nationally.
Under a five-year contract, Houston will pay a fixed price of 7.5 cents per kilowatt hour for the wind-generated electricity, 21% lower than the 9.5 cents per kilowatt hour it pays for conventional power.
you are the media you consume.
And posted as a diary here too: http://www.eurotrib.com/?op=displaystory;sid=2008/7/2/151318/9555 In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
