facts, analysis, exposure of wind energy's real impacts Windaction http://www.windaction.org/articles/c99+61?theme=atom Xarayar 2006-06-12T02:16:27Z .36913 2013-01-03T12:19:30Z 2013-01-03T12:19:30Z

Exelon Corp., the Chicago parent company of Peco Energy Co. and one of the nation's largest power generators, led opposition to the production tax credit. Though Exelon is also a major wind-farm operator, it opposed the tax credit for distorting energy markets and driving down margins at competitive power producers.

.36710 2012-12-08T13:38:07Z 2012-12-08T13:38:07Z

Along with tax credit fights, the wind industry often faces opposition from conservationists. Save the Mountain contested a plan by Gamesa to put windmills on Shaffer Mountain in Somerset County, a migrating path for hawks, bats and eagles. The group also did not want construction to destroy the hill's pristine wilderness or high-quality trout streams.

.36229 2012-10-08T13:08:16Z 2012-10-08T13:08:16Z

EON AG agreed to sell a 50 percent stake in three U.S. wind farms to Danish pension fund PensionDanmark as Germany's biggest utility seeks to free up capital. ..."The return is very similar to what we can get on listed equities, though with a very limited downside risk," thanks to fixed prices negotiated on the power generated by the turbines over the next 15 years."

.35669 2012-07-31T11:46:43Z 2012-07-31T11:46:43Z

"In the past there was more of a calculation by the majority of the developers that it would get extended. There were more of them willing to make that bet and move forward with their projects. The shift in political tone, the increasing gridlock, the harsher rhetoric against incentive for renewable energy, has really had an impact."

.35045 2012-05-23T05:20:18Z 2012-05-23T05:20:18Z

Bat and Wind Energy Cooperative commissioned a two-year study [of] randomly selected 10 turbines in the areas and fitted them with bat deterrent devices-"an acoustic device," Hein says, "that would generate a noise that would disrupt a bat's ability to locate the turban plate"-to see if it made a difference.

.32486 2011-07-17T11:35:19Z 2011-07-17T11:35:19Z

The 420 wind turbines now in use across Pennsylvania killed more than 10,000 bats last year -- mostly in the late summer months, according to the state Game Commission. That's an average of 25 bats per turbine per year, and the Nature Conservancy predicts as many as 2,900 turbines will be set up across the state by 2030. This is a bad time to be a bat.

.32318 2011-06-25T05:24:44Z 2011-06-25T05:24:44Z

Testing at wind energy sites throughout the state shows approximately 25 bats and four birds killed every year at each of the state's 420 active turbines ...That puts the estimated kills through June 2010 at some 10,500 bats and 1,680 birds.

.26007 2010-03-07T21:46:25Z 2010-03-07T21:46:25Z

White-nose snydrome has the potential to devastate bats, which also are dying from impacts with wind turbines, Whidden said Feb. 25 during a lecture at Penn State Hazleton. Even before the new threats appeared to the nine species of bats regularly seen in Pennsylvania, one of them, the Indiana bat, was on the federal endangered species list, and that state listed the small-footed bat as threatened.

.22991 2009-09-04T03:16:54Z 2009-09-04T03:16:54Z

Millions in federal stimulus money was expected for Locust Ridge II wind farm near Shenandoah even before President Obama took office in January, according to the company that developed the project. "When we were lobbying (the Obama transition team), we said, 'You need to do something or we can't utilize the tax credit,' " Rich Glick, government affairs director with international wind power company Iberdrola Renewables, said in a conference call with The Republican-Herald late Thursday afternoon. "It allowed us to complete Locust Ridge."

.22936 2009-09-02T09:07:42Z 2009-09-02T09:07:42Z

Despite reports to the contrary, none of the $294 million in stimulus money awarded Tuesday to Spanish wind company Iberdrola Renewables will be spent in Pennsylvania, according to company officials. ...Johnson said Iberdrola applied for stimulus money using projects already completed, like Locust Ridge II, as examples. She said the federal government was looking at a company's track record of success.

.22699 2009-08-16T07:35:40Z 2009-08-16T07:35:40Z

Turbines already are taking a heavy toll in West Virginia and Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania Game Commission released a report last spring showing the death rate is highest for bats, which additionally face being wiped out by a mysterious phenomenon called "white-nose syndrome." The evidence has mounted since studies in 2004 showed 1,500 to 4,000 bats annually were killed by the 44 turbines on West Virginia's Backbone Mountain.

.21502 2009-06-10T13:10:56Z 2009-06-10T13:10:56Z

The wind, a favorite power source of the green energy movement, seems to be dying down across the United States. And the cause, ironically, may be global warming - the very problem wind power seeks to address. The idea that winds may be slowing is still a speculative one, and scientists disagree whether that is happening. But a first-of-its-kind study suggests that average and peak wind speeds have been noticeably slowing since 1973, especially in the Midwest and the East.

.19174 2008-12-15T17:47:10Z 2008-12-15T17:47:10Z

"The development of renewable energy resources will require a significant expansion of the grid, as well as a significant increase in needed operating reserves given the intermittent nature of wind and other resources." PJM has 90,000 megawatts of new generation waiting for approval to feed into the grid, with nearly half that power coming from wind.

.13146 2007-12-13T04:00:37Z 2007-12-13T04:00:37Z

On Capitol Hill, the Audubon Society is leading the fight to increase production of climate-friendly power. So why are Audubon enthusiasts battling a wind farm that could help meet that goal? For one thing, there are trout in nearby streams, which activists say are at risk from chemical and sediment runoff from construction of 30 turbines, each soaring about 400 feet -- taller than the Statue of Liberty. Then there are the bats and hawks, which might be puréed by the giant blades that would catch the wind gusting along the Allegheny Mountains of Western Pennsylvania. "They're enormous," says Tom Dick, a retired veterinarian who founded the local Audubon chapter. "When you start looking at this, it's like, 'hell, this is not right.'"

.10754 2007-07-15T12:02:33Z 2007-07-15T12:02:33Z

Last month the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service removed the bald and golden eagles from the federal Endangered Species List. While eagle populations have grown in every state, we also learned last month that five species of common birds in Pennsylvania are declining at an alarming rate. According to Audubon Pennsylvania, the golden-winged warbler population has declined an astounding 98 percent since 1967, followed by the Eastern meadowlark (86 percent), wood thrush (62 percent), American bittern (59 percent) and ruffed grouse (22 percent). Three of the species depend on forest habitats, one lives in wetlands and the fifth resides in agricultural areas. Five different birds, three different habitats and they are all suffering. That's not good.

.10782 2007-07-15T11:33:55Z 2007-07-15T11:33:55Z

GETTYSBURG, Pa. - Apple trees have been planted, wood fences restored and power lines buried in recent years to transform the Civil War battlefield in Gettysburg to the way it looked when Union and Confederate forces clashed on farmers' fields in 1863. But preservationists now worry that the national military park in Pennsylvania's picturesque fruit belt soon may be in the shadow of high-powered transmission lines. It is not just Gettysburg that worries them as a result of a 2005 law that gave federal regulators new authority over where power lines are built. They fear the law could place hundreds of national and state parks and other protected sites in the Northeast and Southwest in or near the path of massive power lines.

.10293 2007-06-21T11:34:23Z 2007-06-21T11:34:23Z

WASHINGTON - The House rejected a resolution Wednesday that would block government plans to spur construction of major new power lines in many states regardless of local opposition. The issue has been contentious in parts of the East Coast and in the Southwest, where two high priority transmission corridors for power lines were proposed. Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., warned colleagues that unwanted power lines could come to their district.

.7787 2007-02-06T13:37:48Z 2007-02-06T13:37:48Z

The operator of the power grid for the mid-Atlantic and parts of the Midwest said Monday it reached an all-time record for winter electricity use amid frigid weather on the East Coast. Valley Forge, Pa.-based PJM Interconnection, which operates the power grid in 13 states and Washington, D.C., said it set an all-time record for winter electricity use on Monday morning, with demand rising above 112,500 megawatts. The previous record for winter use, set in December 2005, was 110,414 megawatts. The all time record for summer use on the PJM grid, 144,644 megawatts, was set during a heat wave last August.

.7066 2006-12-24T12:20:07Z 2006-12-24T12:20:07Z

When a group of passionate windmill opponents took their message before Somerset County commissioners, Commissioner Brad Cober said the county can do little to stop turbine development. But he had this bit of advice for wind-power opponents: Urge elected officials to stop federal tax credits for wind power.

.6535 2006-11-26T13:11:33Z 2006-11-26T13:11:33Z

Some people say these wind turbines look like corkscrews or a piece of Twizzlers candy. And these uniquely designed wind machines cost about a third the price of conventional wind turbines, according to the Canadian startup company that is building and marketing them. Windaus Energy of Brantford, Ontario, says its wind turbines can be easily scaled for use in residential backyards or large commercial wind farms. In addition to their lower cost, they appear to address some, but not all, of the issues that have riled opponents of wind power. "We have interest from all over the world," said Maurice Deschamps, a former crane operator who is president of Windaus Energy -- pronounced win-DAY-us. "I get it from Argentina, China, India, all over." His wind turbines have no "swoosh" noise and do not kill birds or bats, two problems that have made existing wind-turbine designs controversial, he said. The bird-friendly claim has not been independently verified, and some people are skeptical. Nevertheless, the Windaus turbine doesn't have the typical propeller blades used on conventional wind turbines, such as the ones along the Pennsylvania Turnpike in Somerset County. These blades range in length from about 100 to 300 feet. Instead, Windaus employs a vertical column with three twisting wings made of a light but strong composite material. The wings catch the wind from any direction and operate at lower wind speeds.