(Sources: State of the World 2000, Worldwatch Institute; National Wind Technology Center, <www.nrel.gov/wind/>)

Wind turbines achieved their modern form in the 1980's. Generally, they are mounted on towers with three blades that point into the wind. Wind power has the highest rate of growth of any electrical energy producer. Comparing these rates of growth for the period 1990 thru 1998: 22% wind; 16% solar; 4% geothermal; 2% hydro; 2% oil; 2% natural gas; 1% nuclear. Coal flattened out about 1990 as a way to produce electrical energy world-wide, and has not shown any growth in this eight year span.

Wind power can be produced with many turbines hooked up together to produce electricity, or they can be used individually or in small groups. The larger constructions are known as "wind farms." In the US the wind farms are more generally used while in Europe, the smaller or individual units are the norm.

At the beginning of the modern use of wind power, the turbines were mostly of the 50 kilowatt capacity, but they have been growing larger. Now the more common turbine unit is rated for 600 to 1000 kilowatts in generating capacity. In the near future, even larger units of 2 to 3 megawatts will be put into place.

Europe in general has done a lot more with wind power than any other area of the world. Germany leads the world in wind power generating capacity. Denmark is the world’s leader in the manufacture of wind turbines. In 1995 Denmark produced a half of all wind turbines world-wide. Currently, ninety percent of wind turbine production is in Europe.

Polluting industries show a declining number of job opportunities, whereas the job market for renewable energy sources is most promising. Projections for Europe for the year 2010 are 40 gigawatts which will produce between 190,00 to 320,000 jobs. Denmark recently employed 16,000 persons in the manufacture and installation of wind turbines. At present the estimate is that there are 30,000 to 35,000 jobs from wind energy. The rule of thumb for current economic conditions in Europe – one megawatt of generating capacity equals 15 to 19 jobs.

Compared to Europe the United States is more entrenched in its dependence on polluting power plants. However, estimates say that the Great Plains area of the US has enough wind potential to supply the entire energy needs of the nation. A US Department of Energy (DOE) study estimated that just three states have the potential to supply the energy needs of the nation from wind power, these being Texas and the Dakotas. As the technology improves and there is more development of wind power, the unit cost has gone down so that now it is competitive with fossil fuels in power generation. In 1981 the cost of a generating capacity of one kilowatt was $2600. In 1998 it had dropped to $800/ kw.

There are three main problems that have become identified with wind turbine power. 1) the turbines kill birds, 2) they are a noise irritant to nearby residents, and 3) they are unsightly. Taking the last first, the unsightliness of wind farms with many turbines punctuating the landscape: wind farms or wind turbines in general are too new to be accepted as a challenge to the architectural establishment. It is hard to imagine anything uglier in the landscape than a coal-fired power plant with smoke plumes blanketing the atmosphere around. I’ll let this one pass from this point.

The technology of wind turbines has provided some reduction in the once outrageous sounds from the rotating blades. A European study on the annoyance factor of the turbine noise was made in the mid 90's. Sixteen sites in three countries, Denmark, The Netherlands and Germany, were chosen and the nearby residents interviewed. The main finding was that "... the number of people actually indicating annoyance by wind turbine noise was fairly small." It appeared that the degree of annoyance was not related to an objective level of sound.

The California wind farms which mostly pioneered wind power in this country are notorious for their record of killing birds. Newer wind farms apparently do not have the magnitude of the problem. At the Buffalo Ridge Wind Plant in Minnesota a 1995 study was made of avian impaction with the turbines. This "farm" has 73 wind turbines and ten turbine strings with three to twenty turbines in each string. Sixty-six species of birds were observed in the area of the wind farm. Observations were made that determined that 84% of the birds flying towards the turbines either flew above or below the turbine blades (which varied in length from 70 to 170 feet [I assume diameter of the outer edge of rotation, but the abstract of the study did not make this clear. 170 feet for the length of one blade is pretty huge!]). A search under the turbines came up with three dead birds and five dead bats. It was determined that the birds were not killed by the blades, but that the bats were. [So what are the implications for a wind farm in northern West Virginia in light of our resident endangered Indiana bat?] This study is on-going, apparently.

In 1995 Cole and Associates did a survey of the research on bird deaths. Quoting the study, "...most researchers report that mortalities are not biologically significant to local, regional or migratory populations [whatever that means]. Adverse bird interactions [with turbines] are both site specific and species specific." The recommendation: "...the most important step that can be taken to avoid future adverse bird interactions is to locate facilities based on careful siting studies and away from critical habitat."

As so often happens in America, the believers in "free enterprise" stagger in on new ideas to make money without studying the possible impacts of the implementation of their dreams. So the industry had to see for itself the problem of birds being killed sometime long after the fact. Driving the necessity of new research and DOE funding are the possible violations of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the Endangered Species Act.

Many studies are in the works as of right now. The Natural Renewable Energy Laboratory, a division of the DOE, is working with environmental groups, utilities, government agencies, university researchers, consumer advocates, utility regulators, government officials and the wind industry to address the effects of wind turbines on bird populations. Several meetings have been held to see where to proceed to address this issue. The meetings were co-sponsored by the DOE, the American Wind Energy Association, the Electric Power Research Institute, the National Audubon Society, the Union of Concerned Scientists and attended by interested public and private parties. Priority research projects were identified and are now under way. In a few years we may have a lot of answers to address the extent of the problem of bird mortality and how best to deal with it.

Further references: The American Wind Energy Association <www.awea.org>; The American Wind Society < www.awsscientific.com/AWSNewFiles/windproj.html>