Illuminating the power of renewable energy: new light is being shed on age-old methods and techniques of producing power, reflecting a more conscious awareness of Earth's precious and limited resources.

• Author: Lambrides, Mark

In Wigton, 71 miles east of Kingston, the capital of Jamaica, there is a farm. It's not your average, ordinary farm, however. If you go there, you won't find a farmer in overalls, or ploughs and tractors, or a stable, or cows and chickens. This farm produces something invisible that is distributed throughout the country, not by trucks, but via power lines. It produces electricity.

Twenty-three wind powered generators, each 160 feet high, stand in the fields of Wigton, 2,300 feet above sea level. Each turbine is equipped with enormous blades more than 170 feet in diameter. The turbines convert the kinetic energy of air currents--wind--into electricity. Temperature and pressure changes produced in the atmosphere by the absorption of the sun's rays make the air move naturally from high pressure areas to low pressure areas, and this air movement creates wind. This process is particularly notable in the Caribbean, where the "trade winds" blow frequently and powerfully.

With an installed capacity of 20.7 megawatts and connected to the country's electric grid, the Wigton Wind Farm is the largest in the Caribbean. In fact, the power it generates is enough to supply more than 25,000 households per year. To build it, the Jamaica Petroleum Corporation hired workers and young engineers from the area and trained them in wind energy technologies and substation management. In addition to the benefits of local jobs and clean electricity generated from domestic rather than imported fuels, the project supports a series of local economic and social activities, including support for the nearby rural school.

The Wigton Wind Farm has become an important model for other countries looking to convert wind into essential renewable energy by using the latest technologies. But this modern and innovative project is based on an age-old idea. In fact, humans have been harnessing the power of the wind to generate energy for thousands of years. Sails that used wind power to move boats were the first example. Later, rudimentary wind mills were built in Persia between the sixth and tenth centuries. These vertical axis machines were used to mill grain and pump water. Variations of this technology were created throughout the centuries until the advent of electricity.

To meet today's needs, however, the traditional wind mill has been redesigned, marrying aerospace and computer technologies to open a whole new generation of wind technologies. Modern wind mills can produce enough electricity to supply individual households or they can be multi-megawatt machines connected to large power grids.

Wind farms are now operating in more than 65 countries worldwide. In Latin America, the countries of Mexico, Costa Rica, Brazil, Argentina, and Ecuador are utilizing this valuable resource, along with other renewable energy sources, to help meet their energy needs.

Why is there now a growing emphasis on the use of renewable natural resources for energy generation? For Jamaica, the answer is clear. Wind does not generate local pollution or result in emissions that cause climate change. Wind is a local resource, so there is less need to import fuels. Finally, once the investment is made in a wind power plant, there is a reduced cost for fuel; so the price of power does not fluctuate drastically. These and other advantages are very attractive for a country whose energy generation otherwise depends almost exclusively on imported oil, and whose inhabitants pay more than 25 cents per kilowatt hour of electricity, more than four times what some energy users in the United States pay for the same service.

Modern renewable energy involves various kinds of power generation and fuel conversion processes that use inexhaustible or naturally reproduced resources as fuel. Enormous technological developments during the last 30 years have resulted in huge improvements in the efficiency of these technologies and dramatic reductions in their costs. For example, the average cost of electricity generated at a 20 megawatt wind farm has fallen by over 25...