As long as I can remember I've hated the wind. It slowed travel way down when riding with my Dad in the truck growing up. I disliked the way it felt when dirt blew in my eyes. I don't like the way a car or pickup drives on a windy day. I hate sitting in a tree stand on a 35 mile per hour deer hunt. I don't much like it at all.

As much as I dislike the wind I'm fascinated by it. Weather patterns form, winds pick up and die down. It almost looks like the earths atmosphere breathing in and out. I wrote about the wind a little over two years ago as well. 

Many a song has been penned regarding the wind. Like They Call The Wind Maria by The Kingston Trio,

Away out here they've got a name
For rain and wind and fire
The rain is Tess,
The fire's Joe
And they call the wind Maria

Sunday afternoon, I found myself scrolling through my Twitter feed and a headline caught my attention. Or neighbors to the southeast in Iowa get 31% of their power from wind. Next on the list nationally is South Dakota with 25% of our power coming from Mother Nature and those wind towers we see popping up all over. I was shocked by the number. I was thinking something much less.

The Denver Post talked wind in a recent article. Colorado gets 31 percent of it's power from wind. The article went on to say:

Iowa had the largest wind generation share last year, at 31.3 percent, ahead of South Dakota, with a 25.5 percent share of its electricity generated by wind, and Kansas, which was at 23.9 percent.

Wind power. I like it, and I don't think I hate it. I love the fact we'll never run out of wind. Whereas I don't mind seeing the towers popping up all over, I'm not sure I would want one in my back yard. Now, if it was my land and they came with the check book I would probably see it differently.

But 25 percent is a pretty impressive number. One week out of the average month, across then entire state. It's pretty impressive. And with initiatives on the upcoming ballot on election day, and talk of more towers popping up, I expect that number to climb even higher.

Like it or not, it looks like wind energy is here to stay. One thing's for sure, I don't see South Dakota running out of wind anytime soon.


See Also:

 

More From KIKN-FM / Kickin' Country 99.1/100.5