Reaping the Wind: How Mechanical Wizards, Visionaries, and Profiteers Helped Shape Our Energy Future

by Peter Asmus

Book Overview

From the solitary windmill standing sentry over a rural homestead to the sleek machinery of a modern wind farm, windmills are a powerful symbol of self-reliance and human ingenuity. Once the province... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1559637072
• ISBN13: 9781559637077
• Release Date: November 2000
• Publisher: Island Press
• Length: 267 Pages
• Weight: 1.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

A Blow-By-Blow Account Of Wind Engineering Pioneers

You've got to really want to know about the history of wind power to take on this book. The author does an exceptional job of chronicalling all the characters and woodsy folklore of the wind power industry for the last three decades or so. It's a narrow subject, but for anyone interested in how we got where we are in the field of renewable energy, this is it. (Why do they call it "renewable"? Forest products are renewable, but wind?). A couple of pictures would have been fun. By and large a very unique book.

How to Clean the Air and Reduce Energy Costs

Peter Asmus is a sensitive, and involved, observer of the 20-year struggle to make wind energy a valuable energy resource. This book describes the soaring victories and crashing defeats, with the personalities of the people adding more than enough color and life. Here are the words of one wind industry promoter who made the transition from dreamer to bank-financed developer without losing his pony-tail: "Kudos, and more kudos. You cut through all of our industry's bulls--t with wit and candor, and injected living, breathing humanity into a story of technology. Injecting your own personality, as well. Despite the obvious that no one can ever tell the true story as it happened, you have done a remarkable job in bringing the wind industry's evolution to life, and the future of American, no, global, society, rests in your readers' understanding of the lessons from your brilliant history of our industry." Wind energy is now harnessed with modern machines in 23 states of the US. As we teeter on the edge of another energy crisis, this books describes what some people are doing about to improve the health and security of all people. The beauty of this book is its invitation for everyone to choose the direction for the future.