Many people accept the well-publicized claim that windmills will be able to supply a significant share of our country’s growing requirements for electricity. They also believe that wind energy is environmentally benign and a way to avoid emissions from other sources of energy for electric generation. Political leaders in windy states have even been persuaded that “wind farms” will provide economic benefits, principally through rental payments to landowners.

As proposals to build “wind farms” have proliferated, however, the adverse impacts of wind energy are becoming clear to a growing number of citizens, consumers and taxpayers. They are learning that “wind energy” has adverse environmental, ecological, scenic and property value impacts. They are learning that many of the claimed benefits of wind energy are misleading or false, and that the true costs of wind energy are higher than advertised -- with those higher costs falling on taxpayers and electric customers.

The attached pdf file contains a letter written by Steve Anschutz, Nebraska Field Supervisor of the USF&WS, to Rockford Plettner, Environmental Specialist Water/Natural Resources of Nebraska Public Power District (NPPD). The letter responds to a NPPD request for input regarding the possible construction of a wind farm south of Ainsworth, Brown County, Nebraska. The letter's comments are provided as technical assistance and predevelopment consultation....

Note that this paper focuses on the true cost of producing and delivering electricity from wind and not on the price paid when a utility buys electricity from a "wind farm." This latter number will often have no relationship to the true cost because of the extensive subsidies available to “wind farm” developers and owners. In fact, in the early years of a “wind farm’s” operation the value of tax breaks and subsidies generally will exceed substantially the income that a “wind farm” owner will receive from the sale of electricity!

Michigan mostly has wind resources of class 3 or lower, making wind power production costs high and non cost-competitive vs. conventional fossil power sources.

Responsive load is the most underutilized reliability resource available to the power system today. It is currently not used at all to provide spinning reserve. Historically there were good reasons for this, but recent technological advances in communications and controls have provided new capabilities and eliminated many of the old obstacles. North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC), Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), Northeast Power Coordinating Council (NPCC), New York State Reliability Council (NYSRC), and New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) rules are beginning to recognize these changes and are starting to encourage responsive load provision of reliability services.
The Carrier ComfortChoice responsive thermostats provide an example of these technological advances. This is a technology aimed at reducing summer peak demand through central control of residential and small commercial air-conditioning loads..........

Editor's Note:This paper provides insight into how grids operate.

Having had hundreds of queries from park owners, park users and other members of the public concerned about the increasing number of wind farms in the planning pipeline I have put this document together. Please note I have been helping campaign against wind farms for over 10 years so my view are somewhat partisan, however, I urge you to read the following before coming to your own conclusions.

The story reveals that Radnor officials were misled and don’t understand that commercial wind energy is not an environmentally benign source of electricity. The officials are probably not aware of certain facts such as the following:

This web site provides performance data on wind turbines in California from 1985-2003.

I thought it might be helpful for the members of the Town Board, as well as for the residents of the Town of Sardinia, to briefly address a number of frequently asked questions regarding land use moratoria: