Wind Energy Works >> Basics

Clean, renewable, wind energy produces pollution-free electricity that powers millions of American homes. Clean, renewable wind energy supports energy independence and produces jobs and tax revenue for people here at home. America needs more wind energy development for its environmental, economic and energy security contributions to our society. Wind energy works!

Wind Energy Works!

Wind energy works! because it is one of the cleanest, most environmentally friendly energy sources in the world.
Wind energy works! because it is renewable and the supply will never run out. Wind energy works! because it is a domestic energy source that reduces demand for natural gas increasingly imported from overseas.
Wind energy works! because it creates jobs and increases local tax revenues.
Wind energy works! because it helps family farmers who receive income from wind farms on their land.
Wind energy works! because the amount of electricity generated from wind power has tripled in the past five years.
Wind energy works! because more than 350,000 American households choose it as their preferred source of at least a portion of their electric power.

Wind energy works! because it is one of the cleanest, most environmentally friendly energy sources in the world

Because it displaces other, more damaging energy sources, wind energy development protects air and water quality, helps fight global warming, and displaces mining and drilling for natural gas, coal, and other fuels.
To generate the same amount of electricity as today's U.S. wind turbine fleet (more than 10,000 MW) would require burning more than 12 million tons of coal (a line of 10-ton trucks over 4,500 miles long) or 40 million barrels of oil each year.
A single 1.5-megawatt turbine offsets 13 tons of sulfur dioxide and 6 tons of nitrogen oxide emissions each year.
A single 1-MW turbine displaces 1,800 tons of carbon dioxide, the primary global warming pollutant, each year (equivalent to planting a square mile of forest), based on the current average U.S. utility fuel mix. Wind energy development helps provide cleaner air and healthier habitat for wildlife.
Using more wind energy can save water in the arid western U.S. To generate the same amount of electricity as a single 1-MW wind turbine using either fossil fuels or nuclear power requires, on average, withdrawing roughly 60 million gallons of water a year from streams or rivers, of which nearly 1 million gallons is lost to evaporation.
Energy policy is all about choices. Less wind energy means more of something else – almost certainly something that is more damaging to the environment

Wind energy works! because it is renewable and the supply will never run out

Wind energy is an inexhaustible, domestic resource that helps reduce our dependence on imports of natural gas, oil and other fuels, often from unstable countries like Nigeria and Russia.
U.S. winds could generate more electricity in 15 years than all of Saudi Arabia’s oil, without being depleted.
Because wind is renewable, its price is stable once a wind farm is installed, and is not affected by disruptions in oil shipping or other problems that affect international energy supplies and prices

Wind energy works! because it is a domestic energy source that reduces demand for natural gas increasingly imported from overseas

Forty-six of the fifty states contain wind resources suitable for commercial development.
Natural gas is in short supply in North America, and a huge effort is now underway to import more and more of it from overseas; wind energy is produced right here at home and is not subject to the whims of other countries.
The U.S. currently burns about 13 Bcf/day for electricity generation, which means
during 2007, wind power will be reducing natural gas use for power generation by
approximately 5%.
Rapid expansion of the nation’s wind turbine fleet to 36,000 megawatts would increase its output to the equivalent of nearly 3 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas annually (about as much natural gas as the states of Colorado and Alaska produce today), substantially reducing the need to drill for more natural gas or import liquefied natural gas (LNG).

Wind energy works! because it creates jobs and increases local tax revenues

One major study has estimated that boosting wind energy to just 3% of U.S. electricity supply would create 150,000 manufacturing jobs, most of them in states that have been major losers of jobs in recent years.

Texas benefited from 1,000 MW of wind projects added to the state in 2001, providing $11.6 million in property tax payments to local schools, $2.5 million in landowner royalty income, and 2,500 wind-related jobs.
Each megawatt of wind provides 2.3-3 job-years of employment.
Wind provides approximately 1 skilled O&M (operations/maintenance) job for every 10 turbines installed.
In 2006, four wind turbine manufacturers opened new U.S. manufacturing and assembly plants. Announcements in Colorado, Arkansas and Kentucky, among others, foretell of new plant openings in 2007 and beyond.

Wind energy works! because it helps family farmers who receive income from wind farms on their land

Each megawatt of wind can provide $2,000-$4,000/year or more in farm income even though only 2-5% of the land within wind farm boundary is used for turbines and access roads.
Wind farms can be a valuable source of property tax income for local governments (especially rural counties).
Wind energy helps diversify income for farmers, ranchers and other landowners.

Wind energy works! because the amount of electricity generated from wind power has tripled in the past five years

Wind power is one of the fastest growing energy sources on a percentage basis over the past five years – 29% annually from 2001-2005.
Total installed U.S. wind capacity at year’s end 2006 was 11,603 MW, or enough to serve more than 2.9 million average households.
New, larger wind turbines (from 1 to 3 megawatts per turbine) generate 120 times as much electricity as 1980s models, at one-sixth the cost.

Wind energy works! because more than 350,000 American households choose it as their preferred source of at least a portion of their electric power

A national survey conducted by Yale University in May 2005 found that 87 percent of Americans surveyed support expanded wind farms as part of the answer to the nation’s energy problems.
Some 50 colleges and universities across the U.S. get some part of their electric power from wind or other renewable energy sources; at the University of Virginia, 87 percent of student voters in a referendum in fall 2004 answered yes to a question about their willingness to pay an extra $7 per semester to allow the school to buy 12 percent of its energy from renewable sources.
All over the United States, a wide-ranging set of consumers and organizations are choosing wind power for some or all of their electricity needs. A small example of institutions and companies that use a sizable amount of wind power for electricity include Johnson & Johnson, The World Bank, Whole Foods Market, Staples, Starbucks, the City of Portland and the City of San Diego.

Wind energy works!

A single 1.5-megawatt wind turbine powers about 300 average American homes, year after year.
Wind energy projects in more than 30 states are supplying enough clean, home-grown electricity to power more than 2.9 million households.
Forty-six of the fifty states contain wind resources suitable for commercial development