The Current Issues Involving Wind Farms and Wildlife

For years the United States has been one of the leading countries in greenhouse gas emissions. Wind energy has the potential to become the base of sustainable energy for America’s future. Although there are a few disadvantages to wind energy, the protection it offers along with the economical and environmental advantages provide many reasons to use more wind energy and less coal and fossil fuels in America.

Is wind energy an increasing and efficient alternative to fossil fuels? In the article, Wind Power Puffery, H. Sterling Burnett states that wind power is not a reliable source of energy. Burnett exclaims that wind turbines are "noisy, land-intensive, and unsightly" and compares them to highways, industrial buildings, and industrial farms (Burnett 247). Politicians that support wind power argue that turbines will reduce air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. The author contrasts these views by informing that turbines indeed pollute the air when they are being built and maintained. Another downfall to wind power is environmental effects. "Lawsuits are either pending or being considered to prevent expansion of wind farms in West Virginia

The whooping crane was endangered in 1967. Although believed to be rare, the crane has suffered major population damage to habitat destruction and

Wind provides a source of energy that can be collected and used to power electricity. By utilizing wind energy, companies and cities can more cleanly and efficiently supply their electricity. Turbines have been installed across the globe to supply this energy and are usually placed in open fields where wind flow is high and steady, and they are not close to residential areas. However, their distance from cities makes the process of transferring the energy more difficult and costly. Because of this additional cost, some think it is a better idea to place the turbines closer to the cities for which they provide energy. The issue with plants being closer to towns, however, is that wind turbines can be disruptive to the peace, causing nuisance

Wind turbines are becoming more and more popular across the flatlands of America. Along the same lines as solar power plants in California, there are many issues with wind turbines. Wind turbines are massive towers with a swinging blade that can create wind of up to 100 miles per hour over an acre of air. Turbines require a massive amount of tree removal, roads to be resurfaced and sometimes rebuilt (to access the intended installation area), lots of heavy machinery, digging into bedrock so as to create a good foundation for the tower. It takes 15 to 20 turbines to make it efficient, so it makes all

For example, one myth is that the turbines are very loud and distracting but, that is far form the case. Wind towers produce a “swishing” or “whooshing” sound that only gets quitter as technology advances. As claimed by the American Wind Energy Association, “an operating wind farm at a distance of 750-1,000 feet is no noisier than a kitchen refrigerator or a moderately quite room” (American Wind Energy Association). All the wind towers I’ve seen are at least double or triple that distance from any household so most people can’t hear them at all anyways. Non-supporters say that there are negative health effects linked to wind turbines but, that is so far from the truth. No ill health effects have ever been linked to wind turbines. Only health benefits since the towers emit virtually no pollution (American Wind Energy Association). Non-supporters might also make the claim that wind farms are unpredictable and unfair like many big businesses are sought out to be. However, the great thing about wind energy is you know exactly what you’re in for. Jeremy Payne of the Maine renewable Energy Association states that the “regulatory process is both predictable, reasonable and fair” (Porter, 2015). Payne is referring to the way wind developers decide on and build location sites. Everything is very well predicted and laid out for all to

The first one world issue that can be considered is environmental. Wind energy is beneficial to the environment, as it does not produce any waste, pollution and greenhouse gases. It has been found that the emissions eliminated in a year from generating electricity using a 1 megawatt wind turbine is over 1500 tons of carbon dioxide, 6.5 tons of sulfur dioxide, 3.2 tons of nitrogen oxides, and 60 pounds of mercury (“About Wind Energy: Factsheets”)—substances that are either greenhouse gases or cause negative health effects (“Health”) (“Basic Information”), or both (“Nitrogen Oxides (NOx)”. Wind turbines also don’t require water to prevent overheating, unlike other ways of producing energy. However, wind turbines can effect the environment negatively because they can ruin the landscape, as areas with high wind energy potential are usually very scenic. In addition to this, they can still cause noise pollution even though modern technology has allowed them to become quieter (Cruden 46).

Wind Turbines and wind energy have been proven to be helpful, in the fact that it is a renewable resource. There is always a downside to something good, even with something that seems perfect. There are a few downsides to wind turbines themselves, some being environmental problems. I expected

typical turbine will not generate electricity until 10 mph, and will shut down in anything

We are facing an energy crisis on Earth. Burning fossil fuels are harming the atmosphere; this global warming and affects produces chemicals that hurt our body. People are starting to think about using alternative energy. Wind power would be our first choice, because it’s clean, inexhaustible and renewable. Today, wind power is mainly used in Europe. We believed wind power would be the main source of alternative energy for world use.

(Windustry1) Wind power has some disadvantages. There may not be enough wind in certain areas. Winds are a variable source. It costs 2 million for each commercial turbine. (Craft 1-2) Utility turbines make sounds at a low frequency. The primary health effects are disabled sleep, which is a serious disease. The longer we are exposed the more likely we could get this disease. (Brehm 1) Smaller forms or residence turbine sales cost less overall. Wind turbines cost between $3,000 and $8,000 if they are less than 100 kilowatts. Often there are taxes that dramatically reduce the cost of wind projects. (Windustry 1) Findings show that some; if not all wind turbines exceed the max sound allowed noise ordinances. “It’s like a fog horn going off every 15 seconds”. Strong vibrations and concerns about sounds and light flickers distract motorists. If the turbines didn’t comply with noise regulations they should be shut off, but turning the turbines off during noise complaints can’t be don’t in a short amount of time. Companies stated that the angle or “pitch” of the blades could be adjusted. People with yearly payments rumored in the range of $15,000 or more the lake winds energy park was a god send but was it worth all the noise and all the health problems. (Enos 1-2)

Since the wind industry acknowledges that wind turbines have the potential to harm or cause bird mortality, the industry has put in resources to resolve this issue. Collaboration between TansAlta Corp. and the University of Calgary have found a way to reduce bat mortality by 60% (Jones, 2013). They were able to achieve this by studying the interactions between bats and wind turbines. They found that bat mortality were not the result of external injury, but by lung damaged through a drop in air pressure (Jones, 2013). The drop in air pressure was caused by the low rotation frequency of the turbine blades (Baewald et al, 2008; Jones, 2013). This finding has been supported by other research papers such as the one by Baewald et al (2008) Barotrauma is a significant cause of bat fatalities at wind turbines. Their findings were that 8% of bats had only external

On the environmental aspect, wind energy does not contribute to pollution as almost no waste materials that contribute to pollution are produced by the usage of wind power (Wright, 2005). For example, in the States, wind plants compensate the emission of than 2.5 billion pounds of carbon dioxide and 15 million pounds of other

However, I think that for wind energy, a lot of the disadvantages can be eradicated by developing the technology further and improving the ways we capture wind. The benefits outweigh the downsides of wind energy. Looking at all the information I have gathered, I think that to stop climate change or to reverse its negative effects, I think that first of all, it’s not going to only be about using good electrical sources, we need to try and use more public transportation and each individual has to reduce their own carbon footprint. For the issue of using the correct energy source, I think that we can’t only use wind power or solar energy, we have to use multiple different energy sources, each source of power is created a different way and with so many different places to put wind turbines or solar panels or to make dams, we should be able to create power for everyone that is green, renewable and reliable. This is relevant to everyone because without clean energy that is reliable, we might be looking at many places being affected by climate change for the worse and people will lose their homes or worse due to the impending changes to the weather because of climate change. There are still many people who don’t agree that climate change exists, they have to wake up or our world will be much harder to live in very

Within this paper I wish to address two audiences, the first is best described as local homeowners who are presently in the vicinity of windmills or who will be in the future, and are somewhat skeptical of this renewable energy source. The second group that I wish to address are those who are deemed to be environmentalists, who have a very strong faith in wind energy and other forms of renewables. Since these two audiences can be quite different the way in which I address concerns are going to have to be comprehensive to both.