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Below are some basic answers to frequently asked questions about wind energy. For more information, visit our resources section.
What sounds do wind turbines make?
What benefit does a wind farm have for me if I don’t have any turbines on my land?
Do wind turbines shed ice?
How does wind power affect birds and bats?
How will wind turbines look in my community?
A: Wind turbines make a whooshing sound as the blades travel through the air. When standing directly under a wind turbine, you may hear a hum made by the generator and/or gearbox.*
A: A wind farm generates value for a local community, including:
- Revenues to Towns: Property taxes or payments in lieu of taxes.
- Revenues to Farming and Ranching Landowners: Providing significant and stable revenues to local farmers and ranchers.
- Short Term Construction Benefits: Taken as an example, the construction of 50 wind turbines will produce roughly 60 full and part time jobs and create a significant demand for local construction materials and services. It is First Wind’s policy to subcontract locally for construction to the greatest extent possible.
- Long Term Operations and Maintenance: Operation and maintenance of 50 wind turbines will produce approximately 4-6 long term service jobs. It is First Wind’s policy to hire and train locally to the greatest extent possible.
- Electricity Supply: America’s energy demand continues to increase, and wind energy provides a way to meet a portion of this increase without the drawbacks of other types of power generation:
- Coal plants produce significant amounts of pollutants, including carbon dioxide (greenhouse gas), SO2 (acid rain), NOx (acid rain and smog), particulate matter (asthma and other air pollution related illnesses), carbon monoxide, and mercury (contamination of fish and water supplies).
- Natural gas-fired plants, while cleaner than coal and oil, are often not cost competitive due to large and sudden fuel price increases.
- Large-scale hydroelectric projects have significant human and natural environmental consequences from the flooding of large areas of land.
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A: Wind turbines shut down during icing events due to either imbalance detection or the control anemometer icing (the control anemometer tells the turbine how fast the wind is moving). Any ice buildup tends to shed while the turbine is at rest or while it is starting up (that is, moving at slower than operational speed). Due to this, and the fact that the ice sheds in thin, non-aerodynamic pieces that break apart as they fall, current turbine setbacks from roads and residences should be sufficient to protect the public from ice shed.
To date, there has not been any insurance claim for injury due to ice shed.
A: Recent data shows wind turbines account for less than 0.003% of all annual bird fatalities in the U.S. First Wind conducts extensive, multi-season environmental reviews of each potential project site to determine its impact on local wildlife. While we strive to minimize the impact of our wind turbines on birds and bats, it is impossible to ensure that no bird or bat will be affected.
Many studies on the subject are ongoing, and most remain inconclusive on the full impact of wind power on wildlife. First Wind closely monitors research in this area as part of its environmental reviews. The National Research Council, in a comprehensive review of wind power, recently offered this perspective:
Many studies on the subject are ongoing, and most remain inconclusive on the full impact of wind power on wildlife. First Wind closely monitors research in this area as part of its environmental reviews. The National Research Council, in a comprehensive review of wind power, recently offered this perspective:
The overall importance of turbine-related deaths for bird populations is unclear. Collisions with wind turbines represent one element of the cumulative anthropogenic impacts on bird populations; other impacts include collisions with tall buildings, communications towers, other structures, and vehicles, as well as other sources of mortality such as predation by house cats (Erickson et al. 2001, 2005).
While estimation of avian fatalities caused by wind-power generation is possible, the data on total bird deaths caused by most anthropogenic sources, including wind turbines, are sparse and less reliable than one would wish, and therefore it is not possible to provide an accurate estimate of the incremental contribution of wind-powered generation to cumulative bird deaths in time and space at current levels of development.
Data on bat fatalities are even sparser. While there have been a few reports of bat kills from other anthropogenic sources (e.g., through collisions with buildings and communications towers), the recent bat fatalities from wind turbines appear to be unprecedentedly high. More data on direct comparisons of turbine types are needed to establish whether and why migratory bats appear to be at the greatest risk of being killed. Clearly, a better understanding of the biology of the populations at risk and analysis of the cumulative effects of wind turbines and other anthropogenic sources on bird and bat mortality are needed.
Having said the above, we provide here estimates summarized by Erickson et al. (2005) and estimates reported by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (2002a). Those sources emphasize the uncertainty in the estimates, but the numbers are so large that they are not obscured even by the uncertainty:
- Collisions with buildings kill 97 to 976 million birds annually
- Collisions with high-tension lines kill at least 130 million birds, perhaps more than one billion
- Collisions with communications towers kill between 4 and 5 million based on “conservative estimates,” but could be as high as 50 million
- Cars may kill 80 million birds per year
- Toxic chemicals, including pesticides, kill more than 72 million birds each year
- Domestic cats are estimated to kill hundreds of millions of songbirds and other species each year
- Collisions with wind turbines killed an estimated 20,000 to 37,000 birds per year in 2003, with all but 9,200 of those deaths occurring in California
Erickson et al. (2005) estimates that total cumulative bird mortality in the United States “may easily approach 1 billion birds per year.” Clearly, bird deaths caused by wind turbines are a minute fraction of the total anthropogenic bird deaths—less than 0.003% in 2003 based on the estimates of Erickson et al. (2005).
A: Beauty is subjective and while some people see wind turbines as a symbol of energy independence, others do not agree. First Wind encourages you to visit a wind farm and judge for yourself. However, if you cannot see a wind farm in person, please visit one of these websites to see pictures of an operating First Wind farm: www.marshillwind.com or www.kaheawa.com
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