Tiny town of Rock Port, Missouri now (pretty much) completely energy independent

This is a wind turbine in England, not Missouri, but I like the image. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Greenpark_wind_turbine_arp.jpg Apparently one of these provides electricity for 1000 homes.

NPR.org has an article on a small town in Missouri today that has become more or less completely energy independent thanks to four wind turbines. This is a really good way for mayors of small towns to try to keep people from leaving for the city, because there's almost nothing more attractive than nearly free energy.

As the United States grapples for ways to break its dependence on foreign energy sources, one tiny town in Missouri seems to have it figured out.

Rock Port, in the northwest tip of the state, has been on the decline for decades, and its population dwindles each year. But a walk up to the old cemetery shows something that has put the wind, literally, back in the town's sails: four massive turbines.

It's the first community in the United States to be powered completely by wind. The town's four turbines generate more electricity than Rock Port's 1,300 residents use — making the town truly energy-independent.

I think my favourite part is that the person responsible for saving (I don't think that's an exaggeration) the town used to work at a mortuary:

The turbines were the brainchild of resident Eric Chamberlain, who used to work at a mortuary. He says the idea came to him as he was driving to a funeral in northern Iowa. On the way, he passed some wind turbines and thought, "Why can't we do this? We've got wind." He began researching the technology and eventually started recording wind data.

And here are some of the effects:

Raymond Henagan runs a small phone, cable and data storage company in Rock Port. He says that when Chamberlain told him about the wind-farm idea, he told him he was off his rocker.

But Henagan says he's seen how much the wind farm has helped protect the town from the rising costs of energy, and skyrocketing prices. "If we can stabilize some of these costs, we can provide good jobs for the future of these young people," he says.

Wikipedia has a page on the town but there's not much information that can't be found in the NPR article.

It does, however, have a nice chart showing the amount of wind power generated throughout the world. Note how high Denmark is in spite of the tiny population:

Installed windpower capacity (MW)
Rank	Nation	2005	2006	2007
1	Germany	18,415	20,622	22,247
2	United States	9,149	11,603	16,818
3	Spain	10,028	11,615	15,145
4	India	4,430	6,270	8,000
5	China	1,260	2,604	6,050
6	Denmark (& Faeroe Islands)	3,136	3,140	3,129
7	Italy	1,718	2,123	2,726
8	France	757	1,567	2,454
9	United Kingdom	1,332	1,963	2,389
10	Portugal	1,022	1,716	2,150
11	Canada	683	1,459	1,856
12	Netherlands	1,219	1,560	1,747
13	Japan	1,061	1,394	1,538
14	Austria	819	965	982
15	Greece	573	746	871
16	Australia	708	817	824
17	Ireland	496	745	805
18	Sweden	510	572	788
19	Norway	267	314	333
20	New Zealand	169	171	322
21	Egypt	145	230	310
22	Belgium	167	193	287
23	Taiwan	104	188	282
24	Poland	83	153	276
25	Brazil	29	237	247
26	South Korea	98	173	191
27	Turkey	20	51	146
28	Czech Republic	28	50	116
29	Morocco	64	124	114
30	Finland	82	86	110
31	Ukraine	77	86	89
32	Mexico	3	88	87
33	Costa Rica	71	74	74
34	Bulgaria	6	36	70
35	Iran	23	48	66
36	Hungary	18	61	65
	Rest of Europe	129	163
	Rest of Americas	109	109
	Rest of Asia	38	38
	Rest of Africa & Middle East	31	31
	Rest of Oceania	12	12
	World total (MW)	59,091	74,223	93,849