If you’ve never taken the opportunity to explore the National Renewable Energy Laboratories website, I recommend it. Having known about it for several years as a hotspot for US information on clean energy, it still took until yesterday to go see. There is much of value to be learned.
Two stories led me there. One, that Ontario had co-operated with the NREL in the work leading up to the lifting of its moratorium on off-shore wind farms in the Great Lakes, a fine example of cross-border relations and information sharing for the cause of carbon-free energy. The next was an article about Colarado’s enthusiastic launch into the renewable energy economy, seeking to become a US state leader in research & development, generation, and manufacturing. Vestas has just committed to opening a wind component plant there, and the NREL calls Colorado home, since the 1970s. It has suffered repeated funding cut-backs and neglect, but is now enjoying a 50% boost in its funding, and is renovating, retrofitting, and constructing new facilities. And they’re hiring!
