| Written By - Doug Leier - 11/22/2009 | |
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Link to Original Article here |
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Few doubt the benefit of energy independence for the United States. Why not? Typing away it's hard to come up with a downside to producing and sustaining domestic energy and reducing dependency in the long term. And most Americans point towards a preference of so called "green" energy. The renewable energy resources such as wind power or energy choices less harmful on the environment such as clean burning fuel like corn produced ethanol.
And across the nation windmills and multiples, referred to as wind farms, for most seem to be logical solutions to reducing the need for fossil fuel exploration such as coal and oil while supplying what many point to as more environmentally friendly. Most picture a few large white new age windmills silently churning in the stiff breeze across the Great Plains. I'll first point out I'm a fan of windpower, it's probably not a single answer to a question of how we can produce the energy needed while limiting the impact on the prairies and in the air which so often is the concern with exploration and burning of fuels such as oil, coal and natural gas. But similar to winning the lottery where there's taxes to be paid, there are concerns with wind energy as well. Before we dig into this topic consider some facts according to data reported through the US Fish and Wildlife Service as to their role in the development of wind energy
Wind Energy Facts
- Commercial wind energy plants have been constructed in 35 States, with approximately 11,575 megawatts (MW) of capacity.
- One megawatt of electricity is enough to power 225-300 households
- Developments are planned for several other States as well as coastal and offshore areas.
- Wind-generated electrical energy is renewable, produces no emissions, and is generally environmentally clean technology.
In the United States our wind energy capacity is growing faster than anyplace else," said Randall Swisher, the executive director of the American Wind Energy Association, the national trade organization for the wind energy industry. "So it's no longer really alternative energy. This is very mainstream." During the first half of 2008, the United States, for the first time, generated more wind energy electricity than Germany, despite the fact that the smaller European country still has more turbines than we do. Germany has enough turbines to collect about 22,000 to 23,000 megawatts of power, while the United States has a capacity of about 18,000 megawatts, Swisher said.
But let's take a closer look at some of the other concerns, not limiting factors but concerns. as only a few studies have examined the frequency of bird collisions for significant numbers of wind turbines — one in Denmark and two in California. These indicate that a bird will collide with a given wind machine no more than approximately once every 8 to 15 years.]Higher levels of mortality have been found by some studies of smaller numbers of turbines in coastal locations with large concentrations of waterfowl, and it seems appropriate to use greater caution in siting wind projects in such areas or in known areas of high migration. In the Altamont Pass Wind Resource Area (which has some 7,000 wind turbines), a two-year study found 182 dead birds, of which 119 were raptors. The study attributed 55 percent of raptor deaths to collisions with turbines, eight percent to electrocutions from power lines, 11 percent to collisions with wires, and 26 percent to unknown causes.
But we also must understand the history of other energy industry on fish and wildlife as who can't forget how in a single oil shipping accident, the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska’s Prince William Sound, more than 500,000 migratory birds perished — or about 1,000 times the estimated annual total in California’s wind power plants. And a study at a single Florida coal-fired power plant with four smokestacks recorded an estimated 3,000 deaths in a single evening during a fall migration.
The main issue with ramping up our use of wind power is not a lack of wind but a lack of good ways to transport that energy from where it's collected to homes and offices and factories where it will be used.The major constraint is the transmission infrastructure. To be able to build more turbines we have to build more transmission lines to carry the electricity from where it's generated to major areas where energy is being used.
As a neighbor asked me the other day about environmental concerns with wind towers, "there isn't really any one energy source without a drawback is there?" The answer is a resounding no, but we are and should develop wind energy while reducing the impact on wildlife. Why not?
