On Tuesday morning, National Public Radio's Morning
Edition program ran a report describing the installation of a small
wind turbine on the campus of Upper Cape Cod Regional Technical School
in Bourne, Mass. “Small” turbine is a relative term. At 83 feet high,
it is substantial, but tiny compared to the monstrous turbines proposed
for the Nantucket Sound right off the coast of Cape Cod.

    According to this report, the U.S. government has
proposed 20 percent of our energy consumption should come from wind
within two decades. Much of the radio report focused on the fact that
all those turbines will need experts to service them– expertise the
students at the school are learning by constructing and operating the
turbine.

    Could such a program be feasible in South Portland?

    Southern Maine Community College may have shifted
its focus, but it's traditional technical curriculum remains strong.
The industrial waterfront to the north of the school could provide
opportunities for erecting such machines.

    That industrial waterfront, as necessary as it is to
the region's energy supplies, is not exactly the most appealing section
of Maine's vast coastline, especially when viewed from the site of the
future Ocean Gateway on the opposite side of the harbor. Could turbines
be used as a sort of shield or veil to obscure the oil depots and
storage tanks. It would be hard to see how such a project could devalue
the blighted view.

    If such a proposal was explored it could have far
reaching benefits. Giving students a head start in a high demand field,
contribute to energy independence and possibly increase the aesthetic
value of a highly visible part of the city.

    What do you think?

                –Ward Peck