Wind Energy

New WindTV segment features Apple Computer co-founder Steve Wozniak

The computer pioneer was a featured speaker at AWEA’s annual Fall Symposium in Carlsbad, Calif., a few weeks ago, and the video draws from that appearance. It’s pretty clear that Woz is an enthusiastic supporter of the clean, abundant energy available from the winds.

Apple Computer, Inc., co-founder Steve "Woz" Wozniak expressed strong interest and support for wind turbines and the wind power industry in a special keynote speech at the AWEA Fall Symposium last week, saying of wind turbines, “I wish my home were up on a little hill overlooking a whole array of them. I would love that.”

Wozniak told attendees at the Carlsbad, Calif., event about his experiences as a young computer enthusiast, his work with the late Steve Jobs and his views on technological innovation in the wind farm industry.

He drew parallels between his experience increasing the efficiency and lowering the cost of personal computers with the current status of technological innovation in the wind industry. Both have lowered costs for consumers by using better materials and things that break down less often. “A technology like wind is so important,” Wozniak told attendees.

Describing the early days of Apple, where advances like the computer mouse were first popularized, Wozniak said, “We were changing the way things were done in the past. It very much makes you think of wind energy.”

He also mapped out a vision of a future where increasing amounts of electricity are harnessed from clean sources like wind and the sun. “If you have two sources of electricity, one clean and one dirty, and they cost the same, that’s where efficiency comes into play. That’s where we are now.”

A Silicon Valley icon and philanthropist for the past three decades, Steve Wozniak helped shape the computing industry with his design of Apple’s first line of products, the Apple I and II, and influenced the popular Macintosh. In 1976 Wozniak and Jobs founded Apple Computer, Inc. Since leaving Apple in 1985, Wozniak has been involved in various business and philanthropic ventures, focusing primarily on computer capabilities in schools and stressing hands-on learning and encouraging creativity for students.

Wozniak also remembered his colleague and friend Jobs, who passed away recently, as “a beloved technological leader,”adding “Steve was a visionary, a leader and a doer. I haven’t seen any like him.”

www.awea.org/windtv/