Community Wind Energy in Empire

Tom Karas recently published an article about the Empire Community Wind Energy Project through the Institute Daily from the Michigan Land Use Institute. It’s worth a look about this very interesting effort that’s under way in Empire. From their web site:

The Community Wind Energy Project seeks to engage the public in the research and development process of wind energy projects that have a net benefit to the community. We are a group of citizens concerned with the future reliability and sustainability of our energy sources. Community wind projects are locally-owned, commercial-scale wind energy developments that optimize local benefits.

It is our vision that Empire becomes 100% powered by a clean, renewable, and local energy: the wind. With the help and resources of the community members we can do this in the most effective and sensitive manner. The Empire area has ample wind resources to power the entire village or township, and we will be investigating how to do this socially, politically, economically, and environmentally with net benefits to all.

I think that community energy is a topic that we’ll all be talking about here in Leelanau County and Northern Michigan – congratulations to the folks in Empire for blazing the trail!

Photo: Storm on the beach! by jsorbieus