Campaigns for Sustainable Energy

Windpower Myths

Common myths about wind power:

KILLS BIRDS

Although wind power offers great advantages, wind turbines do kill birds.  We take this concern seriously and therefore support the sensitive siting of wind turbines in order to minimize impacts on bird populations.  It is important to keep this concern in perspective.  Bird deaths from wind turbines are insignificant compared to losses from other human activities including: radio, TV, and phone towers, transmission lines, glass windows, airplanes, cars, house cats, and most of all loss of habitat.  Furthermore, global climate change is on track to cause large-scale extinctions of bird species.

WIND POWER CAN'T MAKE MUCH ELECTRICITY

This US DoE link opens with the sentence "Good wind areas, which cover 6% of the contiguous U.S. land area, have the potential to supply more than one and a half times the current electricity consumption of the United States.”
http://www1.eere.energy.gov/windandhydro/wind_potential.html

This 2005 study by Stanford University investigators concluded that there are enough land-based wind sites to produce 5 times more electricity than current total world energy use, and seven times the current total world electricity use.  It also notes that North America has more good wind sites than any other continent.
http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/2005.../2004JD005462.shtml

Denmark already makes more than 20% of its electricity from wind and plans to increase this to 50% by 2025.
http://www.renewableenergyaccess.com/rea/news/story?id=46749
-- click here if you want to read the full report.

YOUR RATE OF $3/MWH IS JUST TOO LOW.  IT MUST BE A SCAM.

The rate we get is outstanding for individuals, but within the usual range for large scale purchases.  Our cooperative program simply allows individuals to access the rate that is already available for large customers.

This EPA site lists the top purchasers of renewable energy.  At the top is the USAF, which like others on the list, purchases through the same Sterling Planet company that we use.
http://www.epa.gov/greenpower/partners/top25.htm

This EPA site lists the top 10 University and Colleges that purchase renewable energy.  We are #9 on the list.  Like us, many other institutions use Sterling Planet.
http://www.epa.gov/greenpower/partners/top10ed.htm

MORE GOOD INFORMATION
http://www.wind.appstate.edu/windpower/myths.php For a downloadable pdf, click here.

Please send email if you have any questions.