Electricity produced from wind sources has also come down in price in the last 20 years, Reicher said. In 1970, one kilowatt of electricity generated from wind sources cost 46 cents to produce. Today, that cost has dropped to between four and six cents per kilowatt, and by 2007, it will be down around two to three cents, the assistant energy secretary predicted. Like solar power, there is plenty of wind available to harness in the United States - especially in Midwestern states such as North Dakota and Kansas, Reicher said. Wind resource assessment and development using Micon 108 kW turbine by the Chippewa Tribe at Turtle Mountain in Belcourt, North Dakota.
Power generated is used for a waste treatment plant.
This tribe would like to develop a large wind farm. According to Reicher, the state of North Dakota alone has the potential to produce two and a half times the wind energy generated by the leading wind energy generating country in the world, Germany. Costs to generate electricity through geothermal and biomass methods have also dropped considerably in the last 20 years, and they will continue to fall, Reicher said. Reicher predicted that great technological advances will be made in the area of biomass technology, where organic materials such as grasses, trees and crop residues are converted into fuels to power vehicles and heat homes. But the mere existence of these innovative and exciting technologies will not by themselves reshape the nation's energy picture, Reicher said.