A changing landscape in Sherman County, Oregon. Photo:portland general (flickr)

An environmental nuisance has become a promise of prosperity in Sherman County, Oregon.

Heavy winds were once a daily vexation for residents of Sherman County. Now they are a powerhouse for development for it’s four towns. Located south of the Columbia River Gorge, Sherman County is an ideal location for wind farms — its proximity to power lines that connect to California has made the $17.5 million profit possible over the last nine years, says the New York Times.

Although the once spectacular panorama of Mount Adams is now peppered with huge wind turbines, the operation has been met with overwhelming approval since its beginning in 2002. Jobs have been created, the school district is prospering, and families are more financially secure. Sherman’s many wheat farmers, who were struggling prior to the operation due to the rising cost of farming, have been able to resuscitate the profitability of agriculture and ensure its survival with average yearly payouts of $5,000 and $7,800 for each turbine on their land. “We absolutely hated waking up some days because the wind blows all the time...It’s like living in a wind tunnel...Now you wake up and the wind is blowing and it’s like, yes,” one Sherman County resident told the New York Times.

A Better Place sedan made by Renault-Nissan. Photo: Better Place (flickr)

Imagine there was a new way to charge an electric car that was as quick as filling up a tank of gas. What if you had the option of plugging your car into a vast network of charging stations or — if you needed to drive longer distances — were able to simply swap out your run-down battery with a fully charged one in locations as numerous as today's gas stations?

The dawn of this new paradigm is now. Better Place, as founder Shai Agassi explains, plans to revolutionize the way we look at the electric car by “putting a massive extension cord across the entire country.”

Better Place is teaming with Renault-Nissan to offer the option to buy or lease a vehicle. Agassi's company would streamline the way we fuel these vehicles by having the driver purchase miles on their car's battery much like cell phone users pay for minutes. As Thomas Friedman of the New York Times explains, “G.M. sells cars. Better Place is selling mobility miles.”

Enthusiastically backed by President Shimon Peres, Better Place signed its first deal with Israel, and hopes to be up and running there in 2011. Better Place plans to start setting up shop soon in the Bay Area and Hawaii, with the goal to be fully operational by 2012.

Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm met with Agassi in November in hopes of attracting the new start-up and the resulting manufacturing jobs to her much-beleaguered state. November's unemployment rate was 9.6 percent in the Great Lake State, which the New York Times called "ground zero in the national economic downturn."

On January 7, A123 Systems — a battery manufacturer and partner of Better Place — announced plans to build the first of two proposed battery factories in southeast Michigan. Combined, the two plants would create more than 14,000 much needed jobs. This alone would be a big economic boost to an area of the country that sorely needs it.

Photo: Danny McL (flickr)

A town on Ireland's eastern coast is experimenting with running entirely on its own power. Dundalk is fueling a 1.5-square-mile "Sustainable Energy Zone" — including a school, a hospital and an industrial park — with a woodchip-fired heating system, a wind turbine and self-powered streetlights, according to Sustainable Energy Ireland.

The citywide experiment, funded by the European Union, is expected to make a significant impact on energy sources. Sustainable Energy Ireland says by 2010, renewable energy will produce at least 20 percent of the heat and electricity used in the Sustainable Energy Zone.

If the experiment is successful, replicating it elsewhere could be a boon to energy-starved nations. Stay tuned.