After indulging in a few cocktails and cheery conversation, people gathered to discuss the serious business of wind-power development in Vermont.

Sitting shoulder to shoulder in the portrait room at the ECHO Lake Aquarium and Science Center, community members listened intently to panelists before engaging in a somewhat heated debate about windmills and nature. Lights were dimmed as images emerged of Don Quixote's jousting windmills and of dead bats to illustrate the wind-energy debate.

The presentation, titled "Windmills: Viewed through the lens of art, science, and animal impact" included panelists Patrick Marold, Thomas Tailer and Scott Darling in this culminating event of a three-part series, "The Energy Project Vermont," a partnership between ECHO and Burlington City Arts with the support of University of Vermont.

"What we are hoping to do with this partnership is to get a dialog going about wind and alternative energies," series organizer Linda Bowden said. "We are providing opportunities for people to share information."

Representing art, the first presenter was land artist Patrick Marold, who recently installed 1,000 light-generating windmills in Technology Park in South Burlington. His PowerPoint presentation featured night images of soft, serene, flowing light generated by wind power.

The exhibit, called "The Windmill Project," maps the behavior of wind.

"We can see the wind when it hits a wheat field, water or the fabric of a sail," he said. "This is another way, and it's my vision as an artist. Whenever I bring the installation to a new city it raises discussions like this - and that's the point."

The wind-power debate in Vermont often circles around the aesthetics of wind energy. The question is often, "Do we preserve Vermont's landscape or preserve the world?"

Bringing in the science behind wind power, Thomas Tailer, co-director of UVM's Engineering Institute, followed Marold. He has worked in alternative energy and education since 1979. Tailer's passion for seeing engineering and environment at work together was clear throughout his presentation.

"Windmills have a long history in power politics," he said. "A mill is an archaic term that has to do with grinding grain. Today we use the term ‘turbine' because we are talking about energy."

He began with the Quixote images.

Tailer said just as the iconic Quixote jousted windmills to fight the Industrial Revolution, people today are in denial of our changing climate and are fighting alternative energy sources.

"Wind power is an underdeveloped resource in Vermont," he said. "The image of an angel is an icon, and to me the windmill is that kind of icon, an icon of a sustainable future for this planet."

Wind power is the fastest-growing energy source on the planet and has no global impact, Tailer said. He explained the global consequences of using other sources of energy, such as coal sludge and radioactive waste passed on to future generations.

Images of lifeless bats and birds were shown by Vermont Fish and Wildlife Biologist Scott Darling, but he made it clear he's not against wind-power development. He spoke about his concerns regarding harm to wildlife habitats and animals' dying as a result of wind turbines, and he addressed possible solutions.

For example, wind turbines make up about 75 percent of bat fatalities for three specific species, Darling said.

"Bats weigh about three pennies, so if it's windy, they have a problem," Darling said. "We found that as wind speeds go up, bat activity drops drastically. A curtailment of turbine operation at low wind speeds and during migration would reduce bat fatalities by 73 percent."

Justin Turco of Ira attended the event to express his concerns about animal fatalities, destruction of mountaintops, noise levels and the companies behind the installation of wind turbines.

"This panel discussion was skewed in favor of wind in a big way," he said. "There's a lot more information that needs to come out above and beyond what we talked about here. We're not a bunch of rich people complaining about the view. We are a diverse bunch of hardworking Americans who don't want to pay hell as a result of someone else trying to get rich. We refuse to hand the character and our way of life in this state over to a few people who are thinking only of the financial return and who have absolutely nothing to lose."

Marold's exhibit piqued Shelburne resident Sarah Weisman's interest in wind power and drew her to the presentation.

"It shows wind energy doesn't have to be ugly," she said, referring to the artwork. "I realize we have to get our energy from somewhere, and I want to be a part of this conversation."