Help Needed for Practical Applications of Wind energy

Mike McNern has ran into many brick walls while trying to institute a simple program to stimulate the alternative energy industry in Colorado and the neighboring area. He would appreciate an opportunity to promote electrical generation with wind, solar, and hydrogen and stimulating the alternative energy economy with like-minded people. Mike McNern has encountered some obstacles to the green economy, some of which are as follows: -

1) Excel, a large multi-state power company tried to place a 2.6 cent / kWh capabilty surcharge on anyone installing solar energy whether you needed their power from the grid or not. This was defeated after much screaming and hollering. If the sun comes up in the morning, they send you a bill.

2) He spoke to representatives of two US Senators to get support for putting people back to work with the project outline in the following text called PAWE. One called it socialism to put people back to work and feed their children. The stimulus money spent to stimulate the moribund economy is being siphoned away by large corporations like the defense contractor Lockheed Martin, or is never spent at all.

I would like to share with you Mike McNern's proposal called Practical Applications of Wind Energy and hope that this will fit with your vision for putting people back to work, stimulating the wind and solar industries, and creating a substantial reduction on America's need to import foreign oil. I seek your help and advice on moving this project forward. Mike McNern is looking for a mentor familiar with grant applications and to hear what you have to say about putting people back to work doing necessary work stimulating the alternative energy economy.

Mike McNern has shot a documentary to accompany course materials and has completed a 5 minute demo video showing the successes and failures of wind pioneers and wind entrepreneurs throughout the state of Colorado. You can view this proposal as a video in the original article I posted on Pledging for Change (see resource box).


Much of the wind resource mapping done to date as well as production tax credits benefit only the large scale wind developerand utility companies. Many ranchers with significant wind resources are not able to sell their power to a market that wants renwable energy as a substitute for fossil fuels. Mike McNern has a solution that will benefit homeowners and ranchers, put people back to work, and train people to perform work that cannot be out-sourced to India and China.

A program for small to medium size wind turbines is needed to do the following:
Help create a public-private partnership by bring together interestested ranchers with representatives of the utility companies, government agencies, and equipment vendors, and lenders.

Assist ranchers and homeowners in gathering wind data specific to their land by providing off the shelf anemometer equipment that is easily integrated into their home computer equipment and whose data is readily accessed from the Internet.

Put local people back to work assembling wind towers, and erecting towers with the anemometers attached.

Gather needed wind data to encourage a market in renewable energy equipment such as wind turbines, photovoltaic cells, inverters, voltage controllers, and appropriate deep cell batteries.


Practical Applications of Wind Energy (PAWE) is a program to assist ranchers and home owners to help determine whether wind energy or a wind / solar combination is a viable alternative at their site.

PAWE consists of the following:

1) A seminar to teach ranchers, farmers, and homeowners how to determine their power consumption and whether they can expect to reach that power use through wind and solar electrical power generation. Explain how tax credits can offset some of that cost.

2) Gather data from the ranchers in the classroom to find the most suitable locations for the loaned anemometer, software, and tower. The equipment is off the shelf, grants are needed to make this affordable.


3) Install a low cost anemometer with an attached radio transmitter. Send the data from the anemometer to the rancher's home computer. This data can be uploaded to the Internet allowing one to remotely determine the viability of the wind collection site. Determine whether signal repeaters are necessary once the optimum wind site has been located.

4) Assist homeowners and ranchers to make the best decisions regarding how to build a scalable wind / solar system. Provide assistance in classroom setting to determine how much power is required at their home, and determine the economic effectiveness for a wind and solar power system at that site. Bring in wind turbine and solar photo voltaic vendors to sing the praises of their equipment.

USA is is now and has always been bursting at the seams with innovators and idealists creating better solutions. Secondly, these innovators are analogous to mechanics building the first cars in their garages, film is the best medium to take their ideas out of woods where these folks tend to live and bring their ideas into the mainstream. Film can bridge the genius of these first mechanics and show people how wind / solar can be a more turnkey type of operation.

Upon request Mike Mcnern will send you the following:
1. Proposal for the creation of the Colorado Conservation Corps and the Practical Applications of Wind Energy Seminar.
2. Practical Applications nof Wind Energy skillset
Phase 1 - staff and volunteer training required for the wind energy seminar, wind tower construction, and data collection and analysis.
Phase 2 - staff and volunteer training required for wind turbine installation and integration of wind turbines and solar photovoltaic modules.
3. Practical Applications of Wind Energy Seminar Outline


Mike McNern has spoken on several occasions to the regional representative of Sen. Bennet, Annie Oatman-Gardner, and has met with Senator Udall's regional representative, Casey Howard. Although everyone loves the idea of a green energy project that is long on putting people to work , Mike McNern is still looking for constructive information on finding individuals who have grant money for putting people back to work.

With your help, Mike Mcnern can train people to produce their own energy, and to put people back to work. When people enjoy the dignity of a job that needs to be done, you feed their souls and their children.

Consider this Chinese proverb: " When the wind changes direction, there are those who build walls and those who build windmills."



My Original Article with Video & Links to Documents
My Pledging for Change Profile
For full details email Mike spencer at