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MidnightCall Magazine
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News From Israel MagazineAmerica Takes Wind-Power Lead
The US rush into wind power has enabled the country to pass Germany to become the world’s biggest generator of such energy, according to estimates for the first half of 2008 from the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA).
The US had not been expected to reach this milestone until the end of next year. It achieved this early, while still running behind Germany in total installed capacity, because its average wind speed is significantly stronger.
The total capacity of wind installations in Germany was 22,000 megawatts in 2007, compared with 17,000mw in the US.
Nonetheless, with growing attention on wind energy in the US, the AWEA says the country could well take the world lead in installed capacity as well by the end of this year.
Texas gave approval for a ($4.9bn €3bn, €2.5bn) plan to build transmission lines to channel wind energy from the plains of west Texas to large cities, such as Dallas.
T. Boone Pickens, the veteran Texan oilman and latter-day wind advocate, unveiled the “Pickens Plan,” which calls on the US to use wind power to generate the 22 percent of its electricity now drawn from natural gas – freeing that fuel to be used for transportation.
Mr. Pickens is now spending billions of dollars to build the world’s largest wind farm in Texas.
Despite the growing interest and milestones passed, wind meets only about 1 percent of the current US energy demand. Mr. Pickens says building wind facilities from Texas to North Dakota could produce 20 percent of electricity used by the US at a cost of $1,000bn.
-Financial Times, 22 July 2008, pg. 3
The first time the word “wind” is mentioned in the Bible is in Genesis 8:1: “And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters assuaged.” This wind served to prepare the world for Noah and his family. The last time wind appears is in Revelation 7:1: “And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree.” The purpose of the wind here is to prepare divine protection for the 12 tribes of the children of Israel.
In the meantime, wind is being utilized for its energy, and energy is translated into benefit for modern mankind. Such is the cause also with solar and fossil fuel. All is there, provided for man, but in the end, man will use his accumulated riches to oppose the living God: “And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk: Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts” (Revelation 9:20-21).
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