Wind Power in View: Energy Landscapes in a Crowded World (Sustainable World) [Hardcover]

Martin Pasqualetti (Author), Paul Gipe (Author), Robert Righter (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2002 | ISBN-10: 0125463340 | ISBN-13: 978-0125463348 | Edition: 1st

More than ever, travelers are encountering a different sort of landscape, one not only of nature but of technology. Wind Power in View is the first authoritative discourse on the aesthetic impact of wind turbines on the landscape and what can be done about it. It is a detailed and thoroughly illustrated discussion of the issue from several different perspectives. The book also provides an overview of the status of wind energy at the dawn of the new millennium, examines some of the ongoing battles, and offers guidelines on minimizing its visual impact.

Taking examples from the United States, Germany, Denmark, Great Britain, and Sweden, Wind Power in View is the first book to tackle the thorny land use questions raised by wind energy's hard won respectability. What will be the future of wind energy? Will it be welcomed as savior, or will it be opposed as a new-age intrusion on open space and landscape preservation? These 11 essays, international in nature and written by objective experts, address landscape issues in creative, original ways.

International focus, with examples from Germany, Denmark, Great Britain, Sweden and the United States
The first book to tackle land use questions raised by wind energy's hard won respectability
Addresses landscape issues in creative, original ways

Editorial Reviews

Review

Addresses aesthetic concerns about the placement, number, and location of large wind turbines for electricity generation. Topics of the nine essays include the rural countryside as a metaphor for national identity in the United Kingdom, a soft -foil turbine as an alternative to the three-bladed Danish turbine, public participation during the planning process, the acceptance of wind turbines as part of the Danish cultural landscape, and design recommendations for minimizing visual impact of turbine towers.Book News, Inc.®, Portland, OR

'...the volume presents fascinating comparisons, parallels, and intersections among different wind-energy theories and practices, all of which are rewarding discoveries for the curious reader.'
--Book News, Inc.

'This book tackles the problem or grid-connected wind turbines and windfarms in a fair, analytical and multidisciplinary manner.'
--Wind Engineering

...this book provides valuable perspective for renewable energy advocates especially thos involved in contentious initiatives like the Cape Wind project in Massachusetts. The recommendations in this book will help wind power developers and proponents win the public over.
-- Book Review Digest May 2004

"Wind Power in View makes stimulating reading and definitely should be considered by any persons interested in the connections between wind machines with the natural and cultural landscapes. - Windmillers Gazette, Autumn 2003

Product Details

• Hardcover: 248 pages
• Publisher: Academic Press; 1st edition (March 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0125463340
• ISBN-13: 978-0125463348
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,587,189 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Paul Gipe has worked with wind energy since 1976. His experience with the technology runs the gamut from measuring wind resources to installing residential wind turbines. Gipe is best known for his advocacy of wind energy and for his articles and books on the subject. Through his writing and public speaking, Gipe has sought to popularize the use of wind energy worldwide. In 1998 the World Renewable Energy Congress designated Gipe a "pioneer in renewable energy," one of the group's highest honors.

In 2004, Gipe served as the acting executive director of the Ontario Sustainable Energy Association where he created, managed, and implemented a provincial campaign for Advanced Renewable Tariffs. The campaign sought to adapt electricity feed laws to the North American market and was instrumental in placing the European concept on the political agenda in Ontario. Gipe also wrote a report on Ontario's wind potential for the David Suzuki Foundation.

From 1986 to 1994, Gipe represented the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) on the West Coast. He was the executive director of the Kern Wind Energy Association from 1987 to 1995. In 1988, AWEA named him the wind industry's "man of the year," the group's highest honor. He also served on AWEA's board of directors from 1996 to 1998.


Gipe has written six books: Wind Energy: How To Use It (Harrisburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1983), Wind Power for Home & Business (White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green, 1993), Wind Energy Comes of Age (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1995), Glossary of Wind Energy Terms (Knebel, Denmark: Folaget Vistoft, 1997), Wind Energy Basics (White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green, 1999), and Wind Power: Renewable Energy for Home, Farm, and Business (White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green, 2004). Wind Energy Basics was translated into Spanish under the title EnergÄîa Eelica Pr°ctica (Seville, Spain: Progensa, 2000) and translated into Italian under the title of Elettricit° dal Vento (Rome: Franco Muzzio Editore, 2002).


Wind Energy Comes of Age was selected by the Association of College and Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association, for its list of outstanding academic books in 1995.

Gipe contributed a chapter to Guide de L'ânergie âolienne (Paris: Collection Etudes et Fili©res, 1998), and co-authored a chapter in Wind Turbine Technology (New York: ASME Press, 1994). He was the principal contributor to the Izaak Walton League's Landowner's Guide to Wind Energy in the Upper Midwest. He was one of the lead authors of Wind Power in View: Energy Landscapes in a Crowded World (San Diego: Academic Press, 2002). Gipe has also written numerous articles for both the popular and trade press. His photography has appeared in magazines, books, commercial slide sets, brochures, and posters. He has lectured widely on wind energy in the United States and abroad.

From 1999 to 2003 Gipe measured the performance and noise emissions from small wind turbines at the Wulf Test Field in the Tehachapi Pass. The results of his tests have been published in WindStats Newsletter and are available on this web site under the section titled Small Wind.

In the early 1980s, Gipe managed a pioneering anemometer loan program in Pennsylvania, and in the early 1990s installed two highway advisory radio stations in California. Gipe's script for one of the transmitters won a 1993 TIMMY award for descriptive interpretation.


Gipe's interest in wind energy grew out of his wish to limit the environmental effects of conventional energy sources, particularly those of coal and nuclear power. He contributed to the seven-year struggle for passage of the National Surface Mining Act, which regulates the strip mining of coal in the United States. As part of that effort, Gipe co-authored Surface Mining, Energy, and the Environment.

While a student at Ball State University, Gipe contributed to a citizens' group that successfully petitioned the Indiana Legislature to ban the sale of phosphate detergents. He graduated with an interdisciplinary degree in Natural Resources.

Gipe has modeled the noise and air quality impacts of proposed highway and mass transit projects in Pennsylvania, studied the geohydrologic impact of strip mining in Montana, evaluated water pollution in the Black Hills of South Dakota, and represented the Pennsylvania Chapter of the Sierra Club before the Pennsylvania state legislature. He is a past member of the Sierra Club's technical advisory team on energy, and past chapter chair of the Kern-Kaweah chapter. In 2005, the Kern-Kaweah chapter awarded him the Sierra Club Cup, the chapter's highest honor.

For more information visit wind-works.org.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars A Review of "Wind Power in View", March 19, 2009

By 

Robert J. Parrish (Hunter, OK USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wind Power in View: Energy Landscapes in a Crowded World (Sustainable World) (Hardcover)

Pasqualetti, Gipe, and Righter address the concerns and issues with the growing trend of wind energy in their book "Wind Power in View: Energy Landscapes in a Crowded World." I believe they did a good job providing factual information to us the readers about the wind energy. Many of the concerns mentioned in the book are some of the same concerns my family and I had in the leasing of our land for the wind turbines. I would recommend this book to people that are interested in the renewable wind energy resource and doing their own independent research on the topic to find out if wind energy is right for their area.

--OSU Comp Student 2009