Wind Energy & the Environment

Wind energy works, is increasingly cost-effective, has a net positive environmental impact, and is compatible with most existing land uses. The links below touch on the topic of wind’s environmental benefits and impacts.

Tasmania wind farm Australia’s first to use eagle protection technology

By

Sophie Vorrath

New technology to detect and prevent eagles from colliding with rotating wind turbine blades will be applied in Australia for the first time – at Goldwind Australia’s Cattle Hill Wind Farm in the Central Highlands of Tasmania.

US National Survey of Attitudes of Wind Power Project Neighbors

By

Lbnl

The findings indicate an overall positive attitude toward the nearby turbines, including for those living even as close as ½ mile. Roughly 8% of the population had negative attitudes within 5 miles.

Southern Arizona wind farm investigated after death of bat, eagle

By

Meagan Boudreau

In the mountains 20 miles west of Willcox, 15 wind turbines stand 450 feet tall, spinning with the wind. This is the Red Horse II Wind Farm, the only wind farm operating in southern Arizona.

Trump administration eases rule against killing birds

By

Juliet Eilperin

The Interior Department has quietly rolled back an Obama-era policy aimed at protecting migratory birds, stating in a solicitor’s opinion that it will no longer prosecute oil and gas, wind, and solar operators that accidentally kill birds.

It’s true, wind turbines are monstrous. But I have learned to love them

By

Alice O’keeffe

At first I resented the way they blocked the view. But now the towers look like part of a brighter future.

State Opens Investigation Into Blasting At Deerfield Wind Site

By

Howard Weiss-tisman

Permitting for the project dragged on for more than ten years and the 30-megawatt project is expected to go online in 2018. A contract worker died on the site in April after he was electrocuted.