Why Not Wind

Wind energy impacts Wyoming How wind power plants are affecting the state

Wind Energy Friend or Foe A PDF document examining the story behind the wind hype

Wind answers Miscellaneous wind issues

Wyoming Wind Turbine Sights A collection of turbine photographs from Wyoming

Wind Energy links Resources for wind opposition

Wind graphics

Wind presentations

Wind in Wyoming update 2010

Wind energy letters to the editor

One person's experiences living with wind and solar

Earth Day 2011

Letter to Governor on wind turbines

EIPmailer.pdf How wind increased your power bill

Follow the Yellow Brink Road Al Gore predicted catastrophe if we don't act on AGW--but what if we follow the wrong road? (fiction)

Risk and Reward in Electricity Production

The Myth of Renewables and Energy Independence

Why not wind? Wind is promoted as environmentally friendly, CO₂free energy. It's clean and green. What's not to like?

Wind energy is, in reality, hunter-gatherer energy. Tall white wind "traps" are installed in the hopes of catching a passing breeze and producing "clean" energy. Flat black "traps" are set to catch the sun rays and produce power. Just like in the pre-industrial age, lights, heat, television, and so forth are dependent on a good day of fuel "trapping". A bad day of fuel gathering means sitting in the cold and/or dark.

Modern society runs 24/7, which is in stark constrast to the hunter-gatherer forms of energy. People expect lights to turn on, refrigeration units to work day and night, computers to allow communications at all times. Wind and solar simply cannot deliver such power.

Billions of dollars have gone into erecting the wind and solar "traps" and trying to convince people there exists a clean, free energy source. The result is devasted landscapes, expensive, unreliable power and no more than a small fraction of the power promised is ever generated.

Wind is a renewable energy source--on it's own timetable, not ours. We have no control over when and where the wind blows or how much. We have no viable way to store the energy generated (and little hope of finding the magic formula to make electricity "storable") so it's an all-or-nothing, use-it-or-lose it, power source. Yet society foolishly continues to waste resources and time on what amounts to stone age methods of power generation dressed up in high-tech looking packaging.

The articles and links on this site provide information on why wind is not the answer and by continuing to throw money at the industry, we may be creating far more environmental damage than anyone can imagine.

Be careful what you wish for and believe in. Educate yourself on the folly of wind power.

Why we choose science to access the value of wind

Wind energy is often controversial. The objections to wind are listed below and the problems that are often raised:

1. Turbines take up large areas of land. The question then is "what's an appropriate use of land"?

2. Bats are killed. There is no mitigation for this impact, other than shutting off the turbines during periods of bat activity. The impact on agriculture has been studied by independent experts and is substantial.

3. Turbines are noisy. Yes, but when I was young, I loved the train that ran through our back yard. Not everyone would be bothered by the turbine noise. There is some evidence that turbines can result in health problems due to the noise.

4. Birds are killed. The response is "this is an acceptable risk". However, it is only an acceptable risk with wind turbines, not power plants. So it's probably not about the birds.

5. Turbine lights are annoying. New technology is out there to turn the lights on only when necessary.

6. Wind plants devalue property. There may be sales techniques that help mitigate this, but the simple solution is to have wind developers offer a meaningful property value guarantee.

7. Turbines will help save the planet from climate change.

Now we turn to science:

1. Turbines require mining (copper, bauxite, iron ore, rare earths), refining (especially rare earth metals, which cannot be made to sound environmentally friendly no matter what one tries to spin), manufacturing (components for the blades are toxic and suspected carcinogens until they harden), transporting components and repair parts and so forth. This is not "clean" energy.

2. Capacity factor, Betz's law, and maximum output all create limitations on turbine output. So do cut-in and cut-out speeds-just because the turbines turn does not mean you are getting full benefit (or any for that matter-they can turn without producing).

3. There is a need for an augmenting source of energy, 100% of the time. This means building two plants where we used only one with fossil fuels. This is true even where wind is used to pump water uphill and the hydroelectric plant kicks in when the turbines don't.

4. Yes, the fuel is free. It just takes billions of dollars to build a way to trap that fuel and millions per year to maintain the trap for fuel. The fuel is only available on it's schedule, not ours. Like most things that are free, the "fuel" is worth exactly what you pay for it.

At the end of the day, it comes down to if we had a small, pretty turbine that was quiet, had lights that only come on when planes were near, a fan-cage to protect against whacking raptors, an invisible fence for bats so they don't explode internally passing by the "farm", the turbines had no effect on property values, and had a small land print, we still would be dealing with a variable energy source that cannot stand alone, does not integrate into the power grid without huge expense, and has marginal output. That is all that matters. Wind fails.

If cars worked like wind power:

A new car is introduced, Verde. Verde has one superior feature other cars do not--you get free fuel for life. The car costs $150,000 but subsidies bring the cost down to $50,000.

The car is computer controlled. Speed and starting are tied to the speed of the wind. If the wind is under 7 mph, the car will not start. Likewise, if the wind is over 55 mph, the car shuts down (that would be stops abruptly wherever it happens to be). The top running speed of the Verde is 65 mph.

Power curve for the car is as follows:

Wind speed Car speed %of maximum speed

1 mph will not start 0%

10 mph 3.6 mph 5.5%

20mph 29 mph 44%

30 mph 61 mph 94%

40 mph 65 mph 100%

41 to 55 mph 65 mph 100%

56 mph + car shuts down 0%

The car can only be restarted after shutdown if a technician comes out and resets the car's computer.

This is exactly how wind power works. Because electricity all goes on the same transmission lines, no one sees the starting, stopping and overloading associated with it.

Remember, no business runs on 100% wind power if there is a power line running into the business off the grid. Otherwise, their businesses would run just like the Verde described above.

Wind can never stand alone nor can it "help" on the grid because it cannot be scheduled. You would never buy a car which performed as wind energy does, yet millions believe wind is somehow magically different. It is not.