By Tony McVeigh
Frankfort, KY – Testimony on alternative energy sources before a legislative panel in Frankfort sparked reaction from Kentucky Rep. Jim Gooch, chairman of the Natural Resources and Environment Committee. After listening to a wind power proponent, Gooch agreed it will take all forms of energy to meet future needs, but he doubts Kentucky has the kind of acreage required to support large solar and wind turbine farms.
"You can probably put an 800-to-15-hundred megawatt coal-fired facility on 30 or 40 acres. But I saw recently where they were building an 800 megawatt solar field in Southern California and the solar panels were going to cover 12 square miles."
But Scott Sykes of Genesis Development in Elkhorn City fears Kentucky is getting left behind in the wind energy movement. He says six surrounding states - Tennessee, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and West Virginia - are already generating kilowatts from wind. Sykes says those who argue Kentucky doesn't have enough of a breeze to support wind turbines are wrong.