IntelEfficient

Sustainability is generally defined as “meeting present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.”  Our abundant fossil fuel resources have been an enormous energy reserve that we’ve been able to use to build and grow with, and yet we have to recognize the finite nature of those fuels.  Debates may rage over how much coal, oil and natural gas remain to be tapped, but there’s no question that sooner or later we’ll run out if we don’t do something differently.  It’s also important to recognize that it gets much more expensive and destructive to extract these fuels as their availability declines.  This is why we need to transition to renewable energy sources.

A small farm community near Berlin, Germany has made the transition.  The 145 residents of Feldheim enjoy a mix of wind, solar and biofuels – all generated locally – to provide both heat and electricity.  Energiequelle, a company co-founded by one of the town’s residents, installed a total of 43 wind turbines in fertile fields south of the town.   These 275 feet tall turbines provide about 170 million kilowatt hours annually, most of which is sold to the grid.  To supplement and diversify their energy sourcing, a 2.25 megawatt solar farm was built on 100 acres of land, generating 3.4 million kWh of electricity each year.  The solar arrays are mounted on motorized tracking devices that are manufactured at a factory (EQ-SYS) in Feldheim. Read the rest of this entry »