I was involved in a protest at a mountaintop removal strip mine in West Virginia, USA last week. I was besieged by questions from those who are "Friends of Coal" about jobs and electricity sources should we get our way. I had a few answers, but one I later came up with as an alternative needs some input from those here with the knowledge and skill set to help me understand if this might work.

My idea is to generate electricity with wind farms, supplemented by hydroelectric, as I understand is done in Germany and Switzerland. In West Virginia, there is a lot of potential for wind farms on mountain and hilltops. But, as I was constantly reminded by the Friends of Coal, wind is not consistent. I had read an article somewhere about Germany working with the Swiss to solve this problem by pumping water with the excess energy of peak output of wind to dams high in the Alps to be used to generate hydroelectric power when the wind is not enough.

If the workers were building access roads, turbine sites, reservoirs for captured runoff and pumped water, and hydroelectric generators, then they would remain employed, the mountains would remain relatively unspoiled, and a consistent source of energy would be available.

Does this sound like a reasonable idea worth pursuing? If West Virginia has one resource in abundance, it is steep hills and mountains.

And I include a photo for eye candy for those that are activists here, Dustin Steele and others locking themselves to a piece of equipment I took at the Hobet Mine:

The rest of the photos I posted of this occupation of the largest mountaintop removal mine site in the USA are here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mentatmark/sets/72157630844833644/