Wind Turbines, Clean And Earth-friendly Energy

Today we have the technology and the capability to wean ourselves from dependence on polluting and dangerous power plants by using clean, safe and affordable clean energy sources such as wind turbines. Modern windmills produce no pollutants at all. By using wind power mankind is preventing pollution that would have been otherwise have been generated by a utility company coal-fired power station, for instance.

Wind energy production can amount a great reduction of air pollution over time. Over its life, a small wind turbine can offset 1.2 tons of pollutants and 200 tons of greenhouse gases. Even a modern wind farm, where dozens upon dozens of wind power generators produce electricity commercially to supply utilities, meets the criteria of “clean energy”. But wind farms had a bad press early in their evolution. These concerned the old-fashioned wind powered turbines of the sixties and seventies in California and elsewhere. These small turbines were noisy and populated the countryside densely. This earned them the disparagement of critics. These relatively primitive windmills also required constant maintenance, leading people to criticize them for being costly to operate. Nature lovers were quick to point out that bird died by the hundred in their rapidly spinning rotors. It was claimed too that the downwind side of the turbines disrupted low-level winds.

Undoubtedly a modern wind farm, when installed on agricultural land, has one of the lowest environmental impacts of all energy sources. It occupies less land area per kilowatt-hour (kWh) of electricity generated than any other energy conversion system, apart from rooftop solar energy, and is compatible with grazing and crops.

There are some interesting statistical facts connected with modern wind turbines. They generate the energy used in their construction in just a few months of operation. Greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution produced by their construction, such as by trucks and vans carrying equipment, are small and declining. Absolutely no emissions or pollution results from their operation.  Landscape and heritage damage due to wind farms are avoided when there is proper planning. There is therefore much to recommend wind energy above every other form of electricity generation.
So it is quite surprising to learn that clean, renewable energy like solar and wind power currently produces only about 2% of electricity in the United States. By contrast, nearly 90 percent of that country’s electricity still comes from polluting energy sources like coal and nuclear power. Coal-burning power plants are the world’s largest source of carbon dioxide, the heat-trapping gas that causes global warming. Coal-fed power plants are also responsible for pollution that harm human health and worsen environmental problems like acid rain, smog and water pollution. That is as persuasive an argument in favor of wind turbines as you will ever hear.