Wind turbines silhouetted against a sunset
Myth: Wind turbines spoil the landscape.
Fact: This is a matter of opinion. Compared to mountain
top removal from coal mining, oil extraction, nuclear power plants
and other energy developers, wind farms are quite elegant.
If we don't switch to cleaner forms of energy, climate change
will severely and irrevocably alter much of our landscape as well
as the animal and plant life it contains. And in the United
States, over 24,000 people are dying prematurely each year because
of dirty power plant pollution - we obviously need to change our
energy sources fast, and wind provides a clean, safe
alternative.
Myth: Wind turbines threaten bird populations.
Fact: Studies show that for every 10,000 bird
fatalities, less than one is caused by wind turbines. For
comparison, cats cause about 10 percent of bird deaths and nearly
half are caused by collisions with buildings or windows.
In fact, a recent study published Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change shows that 40 percent of all species could face
extinction because of global warming.
Monitoring of existing wind farms suggests that with proper
location and construction, there is no adverse impact on bird
populations.
It's important for wind farms to conduct a thorough analysis of
the risk to bird life as part of the environmental impact
assessment of every proposal. With rigorous review, thorough
monitoring, and sensitive design, wind power can be deployed
without significant harm to birds (and other wildlife).
Myth: Tourists hate wind farms.
Fact: There is no evidence to suggest that wind farms
deter tourists, indeed many wind farms are actually tourist
attractions.
For example, in Swaffham, Norfolk, over 50,000 tourists have
climbed the wind turbine tower to see the spectacular views from
the top of its the 214-foot high viewing platform
In Denmark, many tour agencies run boat trips to take visitors
to see the offshore wind farm at Middelgrunden, near
Copenhagen.
Here at home, the wind farm in Searsburg, Vermont consistently
fills educational tours of its facilities almost as soon as they
are announced.
Myth: Wind turbines are noisy.
Fact: Modern turbines are actually very quiet! Thanks to
advances in wind turbine technology, well designed, well-sited
turbines can be quiet enough to cause no disturbance to people
living just a few hundred yards away.
At these distances, any noise they do make is usually drowned
out by the natural noise of the wind itself in the trees and
vegetation. To protect nearby residents from any undue disturbance,
proposals to install wind turbines are required to meet strict
noise standards.
Having read exaggerated claims in the press, people visiting
wind farms are often surprised at how quiet they actually are.
Myth: Wind power isn't reliable.
Fact: Yes it is. There is actually a lot of confusion
about the reliability of different sources of electricity. No power
stations are able to operate all the time. Many so-called reliable
sources such as nuclear plants suffer from unexpected "outages"
when reactors must be shut down, often at short notice, for
essential safety maintenance.
Unreliability of this kind is far harder to deal with than the
intermittence of wind power, as the amounts of electricity involved
are generally much higher. By comparison the variation in output
from wind farms distributed around the region is scarcely
noticeable.
In future, hydrogen offers a potential way of storing
electricity from wind power. Excess wind power can be used to
produce hydrogen through electrolysis, and then hydrogen can be
turned back into electricity using a fuel cell when it is
needed.