USFW Speaks on Eagle Conservation and Wind Turbines
"The truth is, thousands of eagles die every year for a variety of reasons — most from natural causes. The vast majority of human-caused deaths result from intentional poisoning and shooting — federal crimes that we aggressively investigate and prosecute. Most other eagle deaths are caused by collisions - with cars, buildings, power lines and other structures. Wind energy facilities represent a fraction of these deaths, and the media’s singular focus on wind turbines is a gross distortion of the truth." - Dan Ashe, Director, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
Read more here.
U.S. Wind Farms Invested $128 Billion into U.S. Economy Over Past 10 Years
That's right, $128 billion! Not to mention an average of $13 billion per year for the past five years alone. The American Wind Energy Assocation (AWEA) released the data last week.
Tom Kiernan, CEO of AWEA, said, "Over this time, wind has rapidly scaled up. There's now enough wind power installed to reliably produce electricity for over 19 million American homes."
There were more records broken last year by wind energy, including capacity installed.
Click through to read more
Continue reading
See Turbine Construction from Beginning to End
MidAmerican Energy posted this informative and cool video that shows a turbine being constructed from beginning to end. The video includes interesting facts about the individual parts of the turbine (such as the nacelle being the size of a school bus!) and how long it takes to assemble.Check out the video below!
MidAmerican Turbine Construction
How Wind Turbines Work
Have you ever wondered how a wind turbine works? Save On Energy posted an animated graphic that shows every step of how a turbine works. Check out the cool picture below!
Continue reading
Department of Energy Releases New Wind Vision
You can find the full report here.
The DOE’s new Wind Vision Report explores our nation’s potential to increase its energy production from wind power. According to the report, America’s wind power capacity has tripled since the 2008 release of the Energy Department’s 20% Wind Energy by 2030 report, making it more clear than ever that it will be possible for the U.S. to generate a significant portion of its power from land-based, offshore and distributed wind facilities by 2030.
The report outlines numerous benefits the U.S. will receive from increasing our domestic production of wind energy, including reduced pollution, increased domestic employment, consumer cost savings, water conservation, nationwide availability, and increased community revenues.
Continue reading
IKEA Makes First Wind Farm Investment in the United States
We're very excited to announce an important event for Apex Clean Energy! Today, we are pleased to announce an agreement with the IKEA Group to purchase the Hoopeston Wind farm now being constructed by Apex in Illinois! The full press release can be found here. Or read on to learn more...
Continue reading
Australian Medical Association: No Evidence of Wind Energy Causing Adverse Health Effects
According to an official statement published by the Australian Medical Association (AMA) on March 18th of this year,
"The available Australian and international evidence does not support the view that the infrasound or low frequency sound generated by wind farms, as they are currently regulated in Australia, causes adverse health effects on populations residing in their vicinity. The infrasound and low frequency sound generated by modern wind farms in Australia is well below the level where known health effects occur, and there is no accepted physiological mechanism where sub-audible infrasound could cause health effects."
Continue reading
ARTICLE: Nine major, statistically reliable studies find that turbines have no impact on property values
We often hear people worry that wind farms may impact the value of their nearby property. It seems a reasonable concern, and we have seen stories on the internet that claim these impacts do exist. However, nearly every scientifically rigorous study that has been conducted to test this question has found that operating wind farms have no negative impact on property values.
This recent article in Clean Technica summarizes nine major, statistically reliable studies, documenting the conclusion that wind farms do not impact property values. It is a great summary of the issue, and it is worth a read for those who are interested in understanding the facts.
Acoustic Engineering group says infrasound released by heartbeat can be higher than wind turbines
As reported by ABC News, the Association of Australian Acoustical Consultants (AAAC) has released the findings of an investigation into the infrasound levels emitted by wind turbines.
According to the Chairman of the AAAC, "People themselves generate infrasound through things like their own heartbeat, through breathing and these levels of infrasound can be substantially higher than an external noise source." Furthermore, he stated, "The levels [of infrasound] generated by windfarms from our point of view are quite low in comparison and they're no higher than what is already out there in the natural environment."
Read the full story here.
More positive developments on wind turbine sound
An article in this week's NewsOK blog highlights new evidence that wind turbine sound does not cause problems for those living around operating wind farms. The article cites five new reports to make its case.
See the full article here.