The National Capital Trolley Museum is now wind-powered. (Pause for one-liners, etc.) We are participants in the local Nonprofit Energy Alliance, a project of the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County and Greater Washington Interfaith Power & Light.

The twelve participants of the Nonprofit Energy Alliance came together to use their collective purchasing power to not only secure competitive electricity supply at lower cost, but to protect the environment and build a greener economy by supporting clean sources of energy. Collectively, the group is saving close to $140,000 compared to standard offer service rates, and supporting clean sources of energy.

This was one of the first successful attempts by the Arts and Humanities Council to pool member resources and thus reduce operating costs. Perhaps representatives of other groups posting to RyPN can share similar experiences of borrow this idea for use in your area.

A copy of the full press release is at this link:
[url]
http://www.creativemoco.com/sites/defau ... y%2019.pdf[/url]

Wesley Paulson

Some people think it cost too much, but the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum is getting at least part of its power from the sun, and has been doing so for a year or more.

General site:

http://www.pa-trolley.org/

Solar power site:

http://www.sunnyportal.com/Templates/Pu ... lang=en-US

In addition to this, there is a transit system (I think it is Calgary, can anyone confirm?) that has its power contract with a wind farm. I also understand that San Francisco's electric rail operations (trolleys and BART), along with the city itself, relies on hydro power, and Amtrak's electrified Northeast Corridor supposedly gets about 55% of its electricity from hydro as well, most notably from a large station near Philadelphia.

In some respects, I think the preservation movement may be of help in modern living here. If you are one of those who thinks we are going to have problems with our oil supply in the future (and I have to admit to being in that camp), then you think we really need oil-free transport. This becomes apparent when you consider that 65% of our oil consumption is for transportation, and 48% of that is for gasoline alone. Trucking adds another 6%, so 54% of our oil consumption (which works out to 86% of transportation consumption) is for motor fuel.

I think we will have to live rather differently in the future, and we will not be using automobiles to the extent we do now. The rail preservation movement may well be very important in showing how some things used to be done, and how they may have to be done that way again.

Now, how is that going to affect the steam roads like the Strasburg and East Broad Top that rely on the auto system for people to get to them?

Sounds like a new challenge for Lynn Moedinger and the rest. . .

For years I've suggested that the California State Capitol building should have a wind turbine installed in the dome; there's enough "hot air" in the legislative chambers to generate several megawatts.
But seriously, the historic streetcars of San Francisco (both trolley powered and cable-hauled) are energized by hydro power from the Hetch Hetchy project. The area southeast of the Western Railway Museum near Fairfield, CA, is studded with wind turbines. And I know of at least one museum that gets some of its "juice" from nuclear power and some from wind.