Wind Power
May 17th, 2006 by Jim SpadacciniAs I mentioned in our last post, a review on the book The Weather Makers, Ideum has signed up with our electricity provider to receive 90% (the maximum) of our power from renewable wind. The Weather Makers points out that power plants, coal burning ones especially, contribute significantly to global warming. This was not news to us, as we’ve been involved in helping to stop the development of a coal burning power plant in Nevada.
Here in New Mexico, we have a voluntary program called Sky Blue from our local power company PNM which uses wind energy. The power comes from a wind farm called the New Mexico Wind Energy Center located in the eastern part of the state. Electricity for 94,000 average-sized New Mexico homes is generated at this one farm with 136 turbines. The farm provides about 8% of PNM’s total power to the state. With so much open land, frequently windy conditions, and an average of six days of sunshine out of every seven, one has to wonder why we don’t generate more renewable energy in our state.
Unfortunately, New Mexico still receives a lot of its power from coal. Our state trails only Wyoming, North Dakota, and Indiana in our CO2 emissions per-kilowatt hour at least according to the Department of Energy’s Voluntary Reporting of Greenhouse Gases Program page. Our “emissions factor” is 2.02 lbs of CO2 per-kilowatt hour.
By switching the Ideum studio over to 90% wind power, we are saving 1,212 lbs of CO2 per-month (based on 600kWh), while adding a modest $10 per-month to our electricity bill. We’re happy to pay, to do something to help reduce CO2 emissions (not to mention other forms of pollution).
If you’re interested in finding out about similar programs your state, visit the Department of Energy’s Green Power Markets Program By State web page. To learn more about protecting the Interior West, please check out the Western Resource Advocates website.
May 18th, 2006 at 6:28 am
Way to go, guys - every little bit helps, and every post about it raises awareness. Now if I can just find someone’s ear to bend at the Walker about this…
May 18th, 2006 at 7:14 am
Nate,
It would be a great thing to get museums to join these programs. Although, I know from my experience at the Exploratoirum, electricity bills can be enormous with exhibits, lighting, etc. So, instead of hundreds of dollars a year, it would likely be thousands of dollars.
There should be some way to have other companies or foundations help subsidize these costs, the museums in turn would then have to let visitors know about these programs.
May 19th, 2006 at 5:10 am
I did this at home (minnesota) and was feeling all special until I compared my 10% wind contribution to your 90%! Way to go. Maybe I will dig up some more dough and up my percentage.
Nate, if you think you have it bad, I bet science museums have it worse. It seems like more and more every component on the floor has three or four power machines that need power. I can’t even imagine how much electricity we use.
It would be very interesting to see the rise of electricity use in museums with the advent of computers and more digital experiences. It might shock us into thinking about conservation in our development process. I know that it isn’t anything we think about very much when building power hungry experiences.
May 19th, 2006 at 7:15 am
Yes, for hands on science centers the electric bill is a major expense. Out of the 500 hundred or so hands on exhibits at the Exploratorium, I would think at least half would need to be plugged in.
I’m not sure that modern digital components contribute so much. I know that computers today and flat screen monitors are significantly more efficient than their earlier counterparts. Our studio uses 700kWh and we have a lot of computers–most new and most flat screen.
I wonder if its like the pollution caused by automobiles, where 5% of the old cars, create 80% of the smog. It might be the thirty-year old exhibits that are adding to the electricity bill?
June 30th, 2006 at 12:31 pm
[…] Last month we announced that we reduced our carbon emissions by switching our electricity over to 90% wind power. Today, Ideum has taken the final steps and have become completely carbon neutral. […]