Filed under: Wave Energy, Wind Energy | Tags: GE, Public Relations, Wave Energy, Wind Energy
Posted by Jeremy Cabalona
The public dialog about alternative energy has rapidly grown louder over the past few years. Instead of being a topic largely confined to particular interest groups, alternative energy has now caught the attention of a mainstream audience. Below are two very different videos. The first is GE‘s highly-publicized wind energy ad. The second, is a story of Alla Weinstein, a private entrepreneur who is making advances in the realm of alternative energy.
This is a very crisply produced ad from General Electric promoting their rapidly growing wind energy department. In November of 2008, GE ran “Green week”, a major effort which showcased alternative energy on its tv network NBC. This was in a “post-’Inconvenient Truth’” time, and major energy companies were trying to appear more “green” to the public. This ad received much attention, and it made its premier at Superbowl XLIII.
This video features Alla Weinstein, who is a former Honey Well engineer and the creator of AquaBuOY. She explains the way her device efficiently captures wave energy. It generates electricity by converting the “up and down motion of the waves into pressurized water.” Weinstein founded her own energy company and works as a private entrepreneur, which she favors over working for a large corporation. Her AquaBuOY technology was purchased by the Canadian renewable energy company Finavera. Weinstein’s AquaBuOY is one prime example of how major energy companies are purchasing the work of individuals and turning it incorporating it into its own energy network.
The stark differences between these two videos are obvious. GE’s ad, while supporting a real wind energy division, is largely a lot of pomp and circumstance. It’s a public relations ploy to change the way the public views GE’s environmental impact. The second video, the story of Weinstein’s AquaBuOY, shows real and unpublicized change in the realm of alternative energy. We knew alternative energy had strong support in environmental movements and eco-conscious groups, but now the push to “go green,” has made a leap to the mainstream.
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[...] has gained support from all demographics across the nation and has become a championed cause by the American media. President Obama is strongly in favor of developing and perfecting different forms of alternative [...]
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