DEATH OF A WIND ENERGY SALESMAN

Career Spotlight on an Alternative Energy Developer

There are those days when you’re on the 5; your car swerves into the breakdown lane because another gust has picked up. Your arms strain from pulling the steering wheel opposite the wind as the gust picks up to a full blast. Those are Anish’s best days.

Instead of pulling out a road map, Anish Parikh, 29, pulls out a wind map indicating weather patterns and topography.

If you’ve seen the movie, “There Will Be Blood”, you’ll have an understanding of what Anish does (without the blood). In those days, prospectors made deals with land owners because they knew the opaque gold that lay underneath. Now, Anish, an MIT college graduate turned aerodynamicist turned wind developer, sees gold in the sky.

“These farmers are sitting on the lottery.”

Anish wants to be part of “cleaning up” the sky too.

When I first heard about his job, the term “wind salesman” kept echoing in my head.

“Do they have quotas…

A – Always

B – Be

C – Closing Wind Farms?”

Anish replied, “Kind of, some people in the industry treat wind developing like any other sales job, and are as paranoid and greedy as that Daniel Day Lewis character.”

Anish spends his days combing up and down interstate 5, deep in California’s central valley. He talked to me about his first deal, how he tried to convince the land-owner. He interrupted himself.

“No wait, I had to convince his Mom first.”

I found it rather interesting that a farmer’s mother was part of the decision making process, but then I learned that these farmers had their farms for generations, and having a 100 foot wind turbine that sits on your farm for thirty years is no easy decision.

“I told them that it wouldn’t affect any of his farming. We lease the land; they collect the royalties ($20,000 a year). “

Anish takes a final swig of the farmer’s mother’s lemonade, and drops off the contract.

It’s no easy decision for the wind manufacturer either. Each turbine costs $2.2 million, and generates enough electricity to supply about 1500 homes. Off this one plot of land, about 100 acres or so, the turbine will only occupy about an acre on the ground, but will be about a quarter mile away from any other turbines they place nearby. Wind technology has risen dramatically. However, if the wind patterns don’t hold, these alternative energy developers could stand to lose a lot of money.

“Wind is still about 30% more expensive than fossil fuels.” I started arguing back that coal has indirect costs revealing my bias.

It takes about 5 years even to begin receiving revenues off the turbine. Before they build the turbine, they take the first couple years to determine if the land is “wind-worthy.” And there’s years of government compliance. They have to watch for the migratory patterns of birds, for example.

Wind farms also suffer from “Not in my Backyard”, especially after all the controversy when they wanted to develop in the waters of

Cape Cod

. Anish thinks wind farms look beautiful.

Finally, there’s plenty of competition - over 40 wind development companies in

California

alone. I had asked if he had seen other wind prospectors in the same town. I pictured Anish running into his adversary at local bars in the region (I was once a screenwriter.). He said no.

Anish returned to the farm. The farmer had read every page of 40-page contract, as had his lawyer – and they had questions. Anish was slightly jaded - he had been through months at a failed wind power startup. Earlier, I overheard Anish talking to a friend who was thinking about working in his field.

“It’s not like you’re staying at the Hilton, sometimes there’s nothing but a motel and the smell of cattle – or garlic, take your pick.”

It’s funny when a person’s idealism faces the obstacles of a regular job (screenwriting for me), but ultimately, what keeps Anish going is his idealism – the promise of clean energy.

Another 4 months of negotiations from when the farmer initially read the contract was when Anish closed his first deal. Did he jump-rope the shadows made by the propeller like I had seen in movies, I asked? He said no.

-Sanjiv

Love New York? Entrance Fee Only $8

In A New York Minute?

Enjoy sitting in traffic? Great, now pay for your enjoyment. Michael Bloomberg, the mayor of New York has proposed to charge an $8 congestion fee to drivers who drive into Manhattan during peak hours (6am-6pm). The idea is that more people would travel via mass transit to shop and commute. In fact, the revenues from fees would be used to improve mass transit.

This is a toughy. I went back and forth on this proposal.

Back: People would be deterred from coming into the city, and would shop elsewhere.

Forth: I held off from moving to LA because I was so afraid of the traffic.

Back: Isn't mass transit near capacity during peak hours? I was packed on that subway everyday.

Forth: Maybe they could open new transit lines with the revenue they generate.

Back: We pay so much as it is. Big hit to struggling residents outside the city.

Forth: We pay so much in air quality.

Other cities like London use it with some success, but I have to say, in the end I fall into the "nay" category when it's comes to the $8 daily. I dunno, coupled with the "Back" arguments, it just feels a little uninviting. Can't we create more positive incentives for people to be green? For example, why did we get rid of tax rebates with Priuses (Pri-i?)

Just this humble blogger's opinion. I would love to hear your thoughts.

-Sanjiv

Bengal Tiger More Endangered than Previously thought

Tracking a Tiger

Last year I was fortunate enough join a tiger tracking expedition in India. (well we took pictures of the experts who tracked the tigers) So when I just heard on NPR that the tiger population is half of what they estimated (less than 1500), I decided to share my experience.

First off, this isn’t a safari, teeming with wildlife. For two hours, we saw little more than dirt, and tiger tracks, and dirt. (backdrop of great scenery though) We were just about to give up when we saw the above pic less than 15 feet away. So what did I do?

Just about the cheesiest thing you can do –
take a pic with a Bengal tiger.

What was strange was that the Bengal didn't respond to the nearby watering hole with several tasty anteloped creatures. The tiger slipped back into the tall grass. We waited and thought that was it.

Then someone spotted him in the forest.

The expert explained that tiger was avoiding giving off its scent because of the direction of the wind. Soon the tiger hid in the grass on the other side of the watering hole.

Enlarge: tiger bottom right

So the tiger is about to pounce, when we here warning calls behind us. Apparently, some deer were in the woods while the tiger was trying to avoid the wind. And poof, we saw like 50 deer scatter off from the watering hole. Pretty amazing

Two main reasons why the Bengal tiger, who shrank from 100,000 to less than 1500 in just a century. Poaching (unforgivable) and deforestation (fixable).

Tigers need a lot of space, that’s their nature. Deforestation, that’s in our control. Start with the World Wildlife Fund - they’re great.

-Sanjiv