SEP 29

It seems that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has taken advantage of Web 2.0. They have recently released an interactive site that uses Google Earth as a platform to map out places across the US that have high potential for renewable energy development. The information for this map comes from EPA databases.

The program allows the user to choose from a sidebar list of renewable energy types – various categories of solar, biomass and wind power. When one or several of these categories are checked, the map displays colored dots indicating locations that have shown high potential to produce the indicated type of energy. The dots are different colors depending on if they represent abandoned mine lands, brownfields, RCRA sites or Superfund sites.

Lands that fall into the above categories are potentially contaminated, and are generally unfit for traditional forms of development. In other words, it’s land that is not in the highest demand. For renewable energy projects, such pieces of real estate are attractive because they allow the renewable energy developers to avoid competing with developers and getting stalled by NIBMY complaints.

It was very exciting to get a visual impression of all the potential we have in this country. Some energy sources, such as utility-scale wind and solar power, are mostly available in the West/Southwest. But community-scale power and biomass power is available all across the country. So what are we waiting for?

Via Cleantechnica
Image Via Google Earth

Comments (5)

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written by nichole, September 29, 2008

what an incredibly cool tool. Thanks for sharing!

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Community-scale power!
written by nerdra, September 29, 2008

There are two colleges in my town, and both campuses have an industrial wind turbine. The turbine at my college provides power for the living/dining/working/schooling needs of 1,000 students (1/3 of the campus), and we have plans (admittedly vague and down-the-road) for a second and possibly third turbine.

Just a little something to brighten your day. :)

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That's Cool!
written by GreenJoyment, September 29, 2008

This was really cool to read. Carrie and I are looking to buy some land to build our own electricity production facility (still have a lot of pieces to figure out to make that happen), but it's neat to see that there are so many potential locations where we could do something like this.

Thanks for sharing this!

Jonathan
http://www.GreenJoyment.com

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written by SpEdLaw2, September 29, 2008

Hi,

I just voted for your excellent blog for the Bloggers Choice Awards.

Could you please return the favor at:
http://www.bloggerschoiceawards.com/blogs/show/21620

Thanks,

SpEdLaw2
http://specialeducationlawblog.blogspot.com

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Something positive in the news!!
written by Stephanie, September 29, 2008

Thanks for posting a blog sharing uplifting news, we can certainly use some these days!

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