RENEWABLES
Wind Destroyed and Now Powers
Greensburg, Kansas
Greensburg was destroyed by an EF5 tornado on May 4, 2007. Instead of aban-
doning the Kansas town, the community quickly embraced the task of re-
building it from the ground up, maximizing the use of renewable energy
sources and energy efficient building techniques. Rebuilding continues,
but the future of Greensburg has never been stronger.
By Lynn Billman, National Renewable Energy Laboratory
In 2007, a massive tornado touched down in the south-central Kansas town of Greens- burg, destroying 95% of the town and killing 11 people. It could easily have been the
end of the 1,400-resident rural farming town
that was already in decline, but instead, the
disaster brought the town together in an effort to make Greenburg’s future a green one.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)
and its National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) provided technical assistance to
the community while dozens of other agencies and entities at all levels contributed many
additional forms of support. As a result, the
city of Greensburg and its many partners are
rebuilding the town from top to bottom using
the latest energy efficiency and renewable
energy technologies. In addition to installing
several ground source heat pump systems and
small photovoltaic systems, the town is constructing a wind farm that will supply enough
wind energy to power every house, business,
and municipal and county building.
Before
Courtesy: Federal Emergency Management Agency
After
Too Tough to Die
Within days after the tornado, experts from the
DOE, NREL, and other agencies came together with state and local officials and residents
to help answer the big question: What will
become of Greensburg? While the town was
evacuated for three months, residents scattered
and businesses evaluated their losses. No one
was sure how many would return to rebuild.
“The planning process that grew out of that
first tent meeting just snowballed,” said Dan-
iel Wallach, executive director and founder
of Greensburg GreenTown, a grassroots
community-based nonprofit formed after the
tornado hit. “Community, family, prosperity,
environment, affordability, growth, renewal,
water, health, energy, wind in the built en-
vironment—these were all values that were
identified that would construct a framework
in which to move forward for Greensburg.”
As the residents of Greensburg focused
their energies on rebuilding, they kept these
values in mind, and their vision took shape.
The City Council passed a resolution requir-
ing all new city buildings larger than 4,000
square feet to meet U.S. Green Building
Council Leadership in Energy Efficiency and
Courtesy: Greensburg Green Town
Design (LEED) Platinum certification and
reduce energy consumption by 42% as compared to standard buildings. They set a goal
of using 100% renewable energy for their
new town. And they included brand-new
