Tough questions about wind energy

In suggesting that the US should turn to wind-generated electric power (see Physics Today, July 2005, page 34 ), Cristina Archer and Mark Jacobson fail to discuss the visual impact of wind farms. height from 10 meters to 10 building stories and appear to average about 50 meters. ¹ The generation of significant amounts of electrical power requires multiple turbines arranged in wind farms. These farms are sited along sea-coasts, atop ridge lines, and in flat, desert areas subject to strong seasonal winds.

Individual wind turbines range in See www.pt.ims.ca/9467-7

Where wind farms exist, their turbines visually dominate the landscape. To wind-power enthusiasts the turbines are apparently a thing of beauty, symbols of “free” energy and progress. Readers should study enlargements of the photographs of wind farms (see, for example, http://windeis.anl.gov/guide/photos ) and decide for themselves whether the sight is an acceptable substitute for nature’s beauty.

The Bureau of Land Management is currently preparing environmental impact statements before permitting wind farms on government land throughout western states. Detailed state wind power classification maps ² show where future wind farms are likely to be sited and provide power classification, resource potential, wind power density, and wind speed at 50 meters above ground.

After studying the photographs and reference , interested readers should be able to supply their own answer to Archer’s rhetorical question “why not?”