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WASHINGTON, Aug 30 (OneWorld) - One of the most favorable yet systematically overlooked characteristics of solar, wind, biomass, and other types of organic energy is their universality.

© Peter ArmstrongAlthough renewable energy is widely credited for the wealth of positive impacts it has on our environment and daily lives, it is rarely mentioned that greener energy can be had without a white-collar income, and the necessary resources can be found everywhere from the deserts of Inner Mongolia to the plains of Native American reservations in the United States.

The vast desert that expands across central Mongolia is one of the country's poorest regions and constitutes an extremely challenging environment for the peasants that call it home. In 1996, however, a local wind farm erected its first turbine and began to harness the benefits of the local gale force winds.

Ninety-nine turbines later, the area's wind power now generates enough electricity each year to power a city of 3 million for a month, according to the Worldwatch Institute's China Watch program.

In addition to securing environmentally safe and much more affordable energy, the residents of Inner Mongolia have benefited from an influx of tourism and new jobs.

In another small village in the center of the desert, chronic drought and sandstorms were so problematic that many members of the community have migrated. Consequently, the government suggested that inhabitants plant a drought-resistant shrub known as a sand willow to bridle the wind and prevent sand from drifting.

When a Beijing businessman discovered that burning sand willows generates an equal amount of heat as burning coal, he inaugurated the first desert biomass thermal power plant in the area. Built close to an existing methanol chemical plant, the power plant uses the waste water from the methanol plant, and the biomass residue can be further processed into fertilizer.

A look inside some Native American reservations in the northern Great Plains region of the United States shows that ingenious applications of renewable energy are not limited to Mongolian desert dwellers.

The Intertribal Council on Utility Policy (COUP) has been encouraging the development of clean energy, such as wind power, on U.S. tribal lands since 2003. The goal is to meet rising energy demands, and any excess power is sold to regional and national power grids.

Intertribal COUP now represents 12 tribes throughout the country. "According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, tribal lands have the potential to provide more than 200 gigawatts of wind energy, enough to meet 25 percent of U.S. electricity demand," Worldwatch reports.

Hence, not only are these wind projects decreasing pollution but they are simultaneously creating jobs and bringing revenues to underprivileged and often disenfranchised communities.

Experts maintain that, "promotion of biofuels industry in developing countries has the capacity to propel such countries to achieve the [Millennium Development Goals] through poverty reduction (especially job creation and economic enhancement), health impact, and climate change." And so it is that they look to Africa, where an abundance of natural resources translates into an incomparably high potential for biofuel production.

This capability is not limited to the use of agricultural crops and plant oils in lieu of fossil fuels, but extends also to solar, wind, and geothermal energy cultivation, they note.

© Worldwatch Institute / R. K. HenningIn villages across Mali the copious amounts of oil extracted from the resilient jatropha plant has been used to power biodiesel generators. This, in turn, supplies the local community with electricity for homes, running water pumps, grain mills, and other vital needs, significantly raising the standard of living and easing life for the largely impoverished and rural population.

Experiences with biofuel crops in some countries have raised concerns that local food staples may be pushed aside in the rush to grow the next big thing. But jatropha is more likely to complement than compete with food crops, say researchers, because it can be grown on arid land, requires little care, and can help prevent erosion.

And in the Karnataka state of south India, a local women's group is taking advantage of the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) to improve villagers' health through an innovative biogas project.

The CDM "enables polluting industries, governments, and other parties in industrialized countries to 'offset' their own emissions by paying for projects that cut or avoid emissions in poorer nations," Worldwatch explains.

© Worldwatch Institute / Ed FladungWomen in Karnataka traditionally use highly polluting fuel wood and kerosene to meet their day-to-day energy needs, notably cooking. But the Bangalore-based Women for Sustainable Development has secured financing to build over 5,000 biogas plants that convert cow dung to cooking gas, a transition that results in "better air quality and sanitation and greater household savings."

All these ecological endeavors represent the power of communities -- regardless of their economic standing -- to capitalize on their local environments -- no matter how harsh -- to promote sustainable ecological and human well-being.

And these enterprises are not limited to remote or exotic locations.

In Takoma, Maryland -- just a few miles from the U.S. Capitol -- a self-professed "average American, middle class" couple installed solar panels, bought a corn-burning stove, switched to fluorescent lightbulbs, bought an "extremely high efficiency refrigerator," and started hanging their clothes out to dry.

Although this all-encompassing round of changes meant taking out a $7,500 loan, "by conserving energy and switching to renewables, we save an estimated $578 each year," says Mike Tidwell, proudly, adding that once the loan is repaid, savings of about $1,000 a year will go straight into their pockets.

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