Briefly discuss environmental impacts and economics of wind energy

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Like solar energy, wind power is a rapidly expanding alternative energy source, and like solar energy the costs are dropping rapidly as more and more nations build wind turbines and plan large-scale wind-farms. Although the United States is a leader in wind energy production, the progress of wind energy has been spotty because Congress as not provided the long-term development and tax incentives that other nations have already enacted. Still, the production of energy in favorable locations is competitive with the costs of using fossil fuels. The environmental impacts, like solar energy, involve no direct emissions or mining and extraction damage to landscape and biodiversity and a very low carbon footprint in the overall process of construction and maintenance of wind turbines. The EROI is estimated to be very high for wind, over 20. One of the frequent objections to large wind farms is that they become a dominating feature of the landscape, and aesthetic objections are common. Another complaint is that wind farms may be a significant source of bird and bat mortality. However, recent studies have concluded that the bird mortality from wind turbine blades is minute when compared with that from pesticides, traffic and domestic cats. Still, efforts should be made to site wind farms off the major bird migration routes. Perhaps the most significant point to be made is that current U.S. wind generators prevent the equivalent of 6.5 million car's carbon pollution from entering the atmosphere.