Article
Wind power's footprint is huge
The Caledonian-Record (VT)|Cynthia Barber, Newark|Feb 20, 2006
Why Illuzzi thinks that wind energy will "avoid cutting wide swaths through our...countryside..." is beyond me. The footprint for wind is huge.
Why Illuzzi thinks that wind energy will "avoid cutting wide swaths through our...countryside..." is beyond me. The footprint for wind is huge.
In a recent op-ed piece, Sen. Vince Illuzzi presented a series of questions that are neither answered within the column nor relevant to his premise that the Northeast Kingdom "needs wind energy." Several others have written in the past couple of days challenging many of his myths, so I will not repeat their efforts. I will simply address one point: Why Illuzzi thinks that wind energy will "avoid cutting wide swaths through our...countryside..." is beyond me.
The footprint for wind is huge. It averages 150 (or more) acres per MW output. Along ridgelines, 1.5-MW wind turbines need to be spaced approximately eight per mile. This would require more than 350 miles of ridgelines (3000 1.5-MW turbines at a 30 percent capacity factor, which …
In a recent op-ed piece, Sen. Vince Illuzzi presented a series of questions that are neither answered within the column nor relevant to his premise that the Northeast Kingdom "needs wind energy." Several others have written in the past couple of days challenging many of his myths, so I will not repeat their efforts. I will simply address one point: Why Illuzzi thinks that wind energy will "avoid cutting wide swaths through our...countryside..." is beyond me.
The footprint for wind is huge. It averages 150 (or more) acres per MW output. Along ridgelines, 1.5-MW wind turbines need to be spaced approximately eight per mile. This would require more than 350 miles of ridgelines (3000 1.5-MW turbines at a 30 percent capacity factor, which itself is pretty optimistic) to equal the output of one large coal plant. Compare this to nuclear, which requires less than two acres per MW output. A single 555-megawatt gas-fired power plant, requiring 15 acres, generates more electricity than all 13,000 of California's wind turbines, which dominate 106,000 acres.
An interesting comparative impact chart from the National Research Council (https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections /nuregs/staff/sr1437/v1/TBL8-2.html) cites the following acreage used in the total fuel cycle of different fuels per MW output: wind: 150 acres; photovoltaic cell: 35; solar: 14; coal: 22.4; natural gas: 3.6; nuclear: 1.5-2.0.