A group of Kansas researchers believe they have a solution that will help rural communities thrive, simply by helping them optimize how they use their community’s already abundant wind energy opportunities. The projects will create “cheaper energy” that can be used to treat water and maintain agricultural systems, while building on the region’s current use of wind energy. … the five-year project will build an online virtual tool that will take information about rural communities, such as its’ population size, number of available acres, average wind speed and amount of money the community has available to invest in projects. The tool will use the data to assist community leaders, groups of farmers, or even state governments in deciding whether they want to invest in these community projects, based on whether the projects will be economically sustainable.
Source: Wichita Eagle.
