Show 11 1 1 x 11 x x x 1 It If Seems To M Me Hy Joseph II Roberts 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 11 1 1 1 1 11 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 11 1 1 Inexpensive energy Our world is teeming with wind energy power water waterpower waterpower power solar power geothermal power even garbage power What's That's holding us back Why are we so reluctant to apply our technology to the utilization of the energy that abounds in our land The usual answer is costs Its It's just too expensive to make practical use of these and sources other of energy Maybe ten or twenty years Inthe in inthe inthe the future when we have used up most of the gas and oil we will have developed Inexpensive inexpensive inex Inex- pensive methods of using alternative sources For now our best plan is to conserve gas and oil use more coal and build nuclear energy plants Bosh I Today solar energy to produce hot water for our homes is commercially available relatively Inexpensive inexpensive inex Inex- pensive to 2000 depending depending depending ding on the size and will pay for itself in savings on the fuel bills in from three to ten years Granted systems for heating and cooling homes with solar energy require much more expensive equipment and may not be economically as feasible right now but they could be made so with a bit more research and development Another source of energy tha that t could be put to use at little expense is wind power People have been using windmills to grind corn pump water and saw wood for at least years American farmers used to hookup hookup hook hookup up electric generators to windmills and provide themselves themselves themselves them them- selves with enough power to light their homes and pump water from their wells into their kitchens but when cheap electricity was made available to them by rural electrification projects they abandoned their windmills One enterprising private citizen has rediscovered wind power and has proved it can be bea a reliable source of inexpensive energy He is Elliott Bayly owner and manager of radio station FM in Oak Creek Colorado I wish some someone someone someone one of or those experts who say wind power power is unreliable Impractical Impractical Im Im- Im practical and costly would go take a look at Baylys Bayly's operation FM Is operated entirely entirely en en- by a windmill hooked up to an electric generator and 10 batteries The process Is very simple even our experts could understand it IU When the wind blows 10 00 miles per hour produces some power and 25 23 miles per hour produces full power the three six foot long blades of the windmill spin the generator which charges the batteries very much like the electrical system of an automobile If the wind doesn't blow for a awhile awhile awhile while and the batteries begin to tobe tobe tobe be drained of power a gasoline gasoline- powered generator kicks in to recharge the batteries When fully charged the batteries can keep the radio station on the air for over four days Bayly says 99 percent of the power used to operate transmitter is furnished gratis by the wind and so far the stations station's broadcast power has remained constant What about the cost Bayly says the wind system cost about Had he run a conventional conventional conventional con con- power line out to the transmitter it would have cost over just to put in the theline theline theline line not to mention his monthly power bills Granted the wind blows harder and more consistently in some parts of the country than it do does s in others and the sun shines brighter and more often in some parts than others but there are not not many places where there isn't enough sunshine and wind to provide at least some of the energy we need to live comfortably in our homes bomes even as supplemental sources they would help Why not a combination of solar and wind power system We could heat water for bathing washing clothes clothes' and dishes with solar energy and produce electricity for all our ur other needs with a wind wind- powered generator and bat bat- teries That way each home could have its own power plant Im Impractical Too expensive By the time we get through the next winter we might not think so |