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FallGuide2009

Why wind power blows

Why we shouldn't overload our energy basket with wind eggs
By DEIRDRE FULTON  |  August 19, 2009

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A mighty wind: New England plays catch-up in the green-energy race. By Mike Miliard.

Holding a finger to the wind: An energy expert forecasts a blustery day ahead for the region. By Mike Miliard.

Photos: the Maine wind farm. By Mike Miliard.

The world is looking for a no-brainer solution to the 21st century's impending energy crisis, and wind power seems to provide many of the right answers. But those who want to run straight for the first ridgetop and put up a turbine might want to slow down a second. In addition to its distinct advantages, wind power has real drawbacks that must be addressed before it is hailed as our global-warming savior.

Around New England, and especially in Maine, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island, activists have many reasons to oppose specific projects, or wind-power development at-large. Ask one of them about the pitfalls of wind energy, and then get comfortable — the list can include doomsday wildlife predictions, decapitation by enormous blades, negative effects on tourism, soaring energy costs, even a suspicious-sounding sickness or a crazy-making continuous drone.

"There's a lot more efficient means to reducing carbon-dioxide emissions," says Audra Parker, executive director of the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, which is against the offshore Cape Wind project (currently stalled in litigation), and favors energy-efficiency measures as a means to reduce dependence on fossil fuels.

"You always have to have a conventional power plant [in addition to a wind farm] running at capacity to meet the demand — the conventional power plants have never been shut down," says Anthony Spiratos, president of the Rhode Island Alliance for Clean Energy, which opposes the offshore wind-energy installment proposed by Governor Don Carcieri.

"The wind industry is in denial about human suffering caused by turbine noise, just as the tobacco and asbestos industries were in denial about the health effects of their products," says Steve Thurston, of Maine's People's Task Force on Wind Power. "There is no excuse for this industry to torment citizens who desire nothing more than a good night's sleep and to enjoy the peace and quiet of their rural environment." To that end, a group of Maine citizens just sued First Wind (see "A Mighty Wind," page 10) and several other parties; they say the noise generated by turbines negatively affects property values and quality of life.

While "wind-turbine syndrome" — described by New England doctor Nina Pierpont as a set of symptoms, including sleep disturbances, irritability, and nausea, brought on the by the low-frequency sound of industrial wind turbines — may never be widely diagnosed, there are other wind-skeptic arguments that point to unresolved issues. For fear of being labeled NIMBY-ites — Not In My Back Yard elitists along the lines of Ted Kennedy who simply don't want their views marred by towering turbines — opponents buttress their arguments with rah-rah-renewables rhetoric: they know they're up against the money and enthusiasm of the federal government, private companies, and the citizenry.

Even the Nature Conservancy's national energy expert, Jimmie Powell, has publicly acknowledged that leading alternative-energy sources (wind, solar, and biomass) take up a "substantial" amount of land — more than their un-green counterparts. He and other authors of an upcoming paper on this issue call it "energy sprawl," and predict that by 2030, energy production will occupy an additional 79,537 square miles of land in the United States — an area about the size of Kansas (which, itself, is about eight times as large as Massachusetts).

Many other green-minded organizations cite ecosystem destruction as a drawback to wind power. Though advanced technology (such as slower-spinning blades that produce the same amount of energy) helps prevent bird and bat death, there's no denying that wind farms and the roads leading toward them take up forested space typically inhabited by animal and plant species. Environmental organizations agree that many of these conservation concerns can be addressed by creating wind-farm site regulations that protect habitats, ecosystems, and livelihoods of those who depend on those ecosystems, particularly with regard to offshore wind farms and fishermen. Such regulations are being developed at the state and federal level, but striking a balance between the hunger for clean energy and the obligation to conservation can be difficult.

"Some of these areas are extremely important from a global-warming perspective," Mass Audubon Legislative Director Jennifer Ryan says of Maine's western mountain range, and the Berkshires in western Massachusetts, which house large chunks of the Appalachian Trail. "It's even more important to protect them from having roads be put into them. The question of standards and guidelines is extremely important." By identifying appropriate and inappropriate locations for land-based wind farms, says Ryan, governments can mitigate habitat disruption, protect public lands, and hasten the permitting process.

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  Topics: News Features , Barack Obama, Science and Technology, Technology,  More more >
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Comments
Re: Why wind power blows
The "you have to have other power plants running" argument is a common argument used against wind power. It's also true, but irrelevent.  All power plants need to have this "spinning reserve" power available. Even the most reliable plants (nuclear has approx 90% uptime) can suddenly go offline. In order for the entire network not to go offline you need to have spinning reserve equal to THE LARGEST of the operating plants on your network (almost always a nuke). This spinning reserve is already built and connected. When the wind is blowing and the wind generators are producing power it reduces the time we need to power up the most expensive oil powered power "peaker" plants which reduces the time they need to be running. Wind power reduces the cost of power generation by reducing the need for these plants to be running. I would also point out that multiple wind farms over a large area produce a more balanced power output than the 30% would suggest. What you actually get is about 35% of the "nameplate" generation, 90% of the time.  At present wind only provides about 1% of the electricity produced in the USA. We need more wind farms and bigger ones if it is to make a real difference. We also need to reduce our consumption of electricity drastically. These sound like opposites but they are not. Power plants wear out and new ones need to be built regardless. It makes sense to include as much wind and solar in the mix as we can afford for simple economics as much as anything else. Reducing the demand for oil and gas reduces the price. I agree with your point on habitat disruption and interference with peoples lives. The place for wind farms is way away from people. It needs joined up thinking and investment in infrastructure to make that happen though.
By andrew on 08/20/2009 at 11:49:23

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