Written by Michael Parfit Republished from the pages of National Geographic magazine Freedom! I stand in a cluttered room surrounded by the debris of electrical enthusiasm: wire peelings, snippets of copper, yellow connectors, insulated pliers. For me these are the tools of freedom. I have just installed a dozen solar panels on my roof, and they work.

There are many renewable energy sources out there right now, continuing to develop in their technology and production. All of these resources have very high capital cost inputs that are hard to compete with cheap natural gas. However, these new resources are abundant, some even limitless, and unlike natural gas, fuels and oil, they will be around for a long time.

Locations of the 400+ U.S. Wind-Related Manufacturing Facilities and Number of Wind Industry Jobs per State Source: (AWEA 2011) U.S. Wind Industry Annual Market Report, Year Ending 2010 Wind power is an affordable, efficient and abundant source of domestic electricity. It's pollution-free and cost-competitive with energy from new coal- and gas-fired power plants in many regions.

Today, the windmill's modern equivalent - a wind turbine - can use the wind's energy to generate electricity.