(photo courtesy of morguefile.com)

Could windpower bring the industrial cities of the Rust Belt a greener and more prosperous future? At least two companies believe it's part of the answer. BQ Energy of Pawling, N.Y., and UPC Wind of Newton, Massachusetts have located a windmill farm where a huge plant owned by Bethlehem Steel once operated in Lackawana, just south of Buffalo.

in the early 1970s the Bethlehem Steel plant was the world's fourth largest steel mill, but it fell on hard times decades ago. No longer a vibrant industrial and shipping center, the City of Lackawana and much of the area around Buffalo have faced tough times as large factories closed and towering grain elevators went empty.

Like many cities of the Northeast, it got left behind as manufacturing moved offshore and a new service and information economy emerged. The devastation was not limited to the loss of jobs and tax revenues; as they departed the old industries left serious environmental problems in their wake.

Windpower is a technology that's been around since ancient times, but generating power from state-of the-art windmills may be a key to the future of windy cities on the Great Lakes. In Lackawana, newly built windmills won't replace the jobs lost from factory closings, but the revenue they do generate is clean and green.

To read more about this topic in an article that appeared in the New York Times go to:An Old Steel Mill Retools to Produce Clean Energy

To read a previous post on windpower go to: An Ancient Idea