The Politics, Needs and Future of Renewable Energy

The details behind planning and constructing a wind energy farm aren't too exciting. But everything surrounding the industry is, including new environmental technology, job creation and all the politics behind it.

resident Patrick Dalseth is a project developer for Midwest Wind Energy, and since joining the company in 2007 he's learned lots about the industry. We talked with him about what he's experienced as part of the renewable energy industry.

How did you get involved with this career?

My background with municipality construction and land use, so now I'm basically doing the same thing. But I didn't know a whole heck of a lot about electricity or wind energy.

How has technology changed the industry?

The technological advances in just five years has been tremendous. Wind turbines are continually advancing and becoming more efficient, allowing wind farms to be in areas with a less robust wind source. Every little rise potentially could be a wind farm. I see that technology continuing to increase as money dropped into it.

What are some drawbacks of wind energy right now? 

The one issue with renewables is that there isn’t a storage capacity. Solar, wind, biomass electricity produced has to go on the grid immediately. There's no technology to store it for long periods of time.

Also, the winter, fall and spring are the windiest. But the summer is when you use the most electricity. You’re producing the most electricity when the demand is the least. That’s the knock that wind gets.

What kind of impact does the government have on your industry?

It’s all political. The industry, in addition to putting research dollars into storage, is looking for federal government to step up and start maintaining and retro-fitting the existing transmission system.

We're also looking fo Washington to adopt a comprehensive energy passage. We thought and hoped when Obama was elected, energy would be on the top of the list. But they chose health care.

There's the talk about the jobs bill—how are we going to put people back to work? There's hundreds of thousands of jobs to be created in renewable energy.

Do you ever feel you're a part of something important?

None of it is too remarkable. But at the end of the day, when you drive past these things or stand under them, I can’t believe my work produced this.