From The Workbench - Alternative + Renewable Energy Blog Valuable information for do-it-yourselfers interested in the latest in alternative + renewable energy

Hello and happy fridgid Monday Morning!  With the wind (ironic, no) blowing outside, our temperatures officially hit -35 below zero last night.  Yikes.  At any rate, wind isn’t always bad, and doesn’t always have to mean frozen faces, cars that won’t start and staying stuck indoors, according to a recent study, wind can mean a LOT more good than that.

With concerns about global warming ever on the rise, new studies about how to best invest in alternative energy are popping up everywhere.  Some of the greatest minds alive are focusing their energy and attention on how best to beat these problems, and some of the results are surprising.  One of the most recent and relevant of the studies showed some surprising revelations about both wind energy, and ethanol.

According to the article I just read,

The review pits twelve combinations of electric power generation and vehicular motivation against each other. It is a battle royal of nine electric power sources, three vehicle technologies, and two liquid fuel sources. It rates each combination based on eleven categories. And it was all compiled by one man, Mark Jacobson, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University.

The results of this test might surprise you.  They found that “Wind power emerged as the overall victor. When teamed with battery electric and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, it claimed the top two spots by winning seven of the eleven categories. Photovoltaics are an unexpected also-ran, failing to make the top five. Politically favored ethanol stands out as the big loser of the study, falling behind “clean coal,” a technology many consider a dead end. Ouch.”  Wow.  Go wind power!

So, if you’re looking to put some bang into your buck, looks like a lot of people are thinking wind power might be the way to rock.

Image via Wikipedia