Small & Community Wind Conference

Small & Community Wind Conference. I'm Greg Martin as Line On Agriculture presents the Harvest Clean Energy Report. Here in the northwest we have discovered wind energy. The landscape is dotted with energy generating windmills. Like them or not, they create clean, renewable energy. Denise Bode, CEO of the American Wind Energy Association or AWEA talks about their upcoming Small and Community Wind Conference and Exhibition in Portland. BODE: The goal of the conference is really to allow people to network and then to learn about new policy as well as new rules that might be in place that tell them about the opportunities that might be available. So we'll have people that are from all sectors. Small wind dealers, installers, component suppliers, people that finance these projects; folks from the farm and local community area and then a lot of manufacturers will be there. She says that it's also a great place for anyone who is just thinking about putting up a wind turbine on their property and easing themselves off the grid. More and more people are looking into these kinds of alternatives. BODE: I think increasingly there's a concern about the fact that we have so heavily depended on fossil fuels and the expansion from fossil fuels which are very volatile in price and scarce in supply overall and makes us dependent on others for our resources. The new start after fossil fuels really was nuclear and nuclear has just gotten really extraordinarily expensive to build and folks really like the idea that the wind and other renewables afford them the freedom. This conference is scheduled for December 7th through the 9th at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland. Registration is available online at www.smallandcommunitywindexpo.org. BODE: The American Wind Energy Association is an organization that was actually founded in a garage in Detroit, Michigan back in the late 1970's. We represent everyone in the industry from the smallest wind turbine manufacturer to the largest utility manufacturer and everybody in the supply chain. We represent the people who develop these wind projects Bode is really looking for people who attend to get involved. BODE: What we want to do is get people excited and energized about wind energy, become part of our army that advocate policy and expand our growth into clean energy and get involved in terms of the business side of it. It is the fastest growing manufacturing sector in the country. For additional information on clean energy, visit harvestcleanenergy.org. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network. www.harvestcleanenergy.org