Put Those Santa Ana Winds to Good Use

Typical parking lot sights include cars, light towers and asphalt as far as the eye can see. But in Palmdale, Cali., boring old lots will soon boast some new assets: small wind turbines.

According to a story in the LA Times, the city of Palmdale recently passed an initiative allowing shopping centers and business parks to install wind turbines. The turbines, which would be installed on top of existing light towers, can help offset the cost of electricity and decrease reliance on greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels.

Sam's Club will likely be the first business to install turbines in its parking lot. The Palmdale business is currently working with a Massachusetts-based firm to install 17 turbines that will produce about 76,000 kilowatts of energy. That's enough electricity to power six single-family homes for an entire year.

The new Palmdale initiative mimics other programs in cities like Buffalo, NY and Cleveland, OH., which also boast relatively windy climates. Now if other windy cities across the nation would follow suit, parking lots would become decidedly greener places.

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.