Dear Nica Times:
I read with interest the article on Iranian
hydropower (NT, June 6). It begged the
question: Why is no-one considering wind
farms?
As recently as yesterday, I heard on NPR
that T. Boone Pickens (oil billionaire) is
vacating the petroleum market for wind
generation, and plans to do it in a big way. I
have neither his ear, nor President Daniel
Ortega’s, but there could be no better location
than Nicaragua, situated as it is directly
in the path of the Tradewinds, which first
brought European explorers to this continent
– whether they liked it or not.
Wind farms could be situated on fallow
land. The only way that a hydro dam could
make better sense than a wind farm would
be if it were a multi-tasking design that also
comprehended water purification and distribution;
PERHAPS recreative tourism;
AND could be located innocuously.
I have not heard that such a multi-faceted
plan is contemplated.
You may, out of interest in seeing Nicaragua prosper and grow, sow the seeds of interest in wind power generation with whomever you are able. I have found Dr. Susan Kinne at the UNI engineering school in Managua to be a reasonable advocate for various forms of alternate energy.
At the UNI’s annual alternate energy courses, I was introduced to the concept of sun-powered, silicone-mediated, steam-turbine electric generation.
Such turbine generated energy could also be located anywhere in sunny Nicaragua, in places where no other enterprises currently exist.
This could not only be a political sea change, as President Ortega has thus far played to “both galleries,” but no matter whether funded by Iranian, or other – presumably U.S. – capital, it makes more sense than a hydroelectric dam.
John Bergman
San Francisco, California
Editor’s note: The government has recently
awarded its first wind-power concession to the
AMAYO Wind Consortium, which will build a 40
megawatt wind plant in Rivas (NT, June 6)
