A Reality Check on Renewable Energy from Wind Power

Today's congressional proposals to mandate the use of renewables have won significant public support because renewables are widely viewed as environmentally benign and largely "free." As the following facts and observations illustrate, reality is more sobering.

NGSA has collected these statements from a wide variety of studies and reports to help Congress and the public more clearly understand the costs and the risks of using renewables. While these reports have not been endorsed or sponsored by NGSA, they illustrate a broad base of concern about mandated use of renewable fuels.

Cost

The Energy Information Administration estimates that current wind generation costs at 4.1 cents per kilowatt hour, or almost thirty percent more than the cost of gas combined-cycle generation.⁸ Without the 1.5 cent per kilowatt hour direct subsidy, the cost would be almost 70 percent more than gas.

Most potential wind energy sites are in the Great Plains, far from population centers. ² Connecting these farms to grids raises significant cost issues.

Wind farms require transmission lines that can handle 100 percent of the wind farm's potential output. But on average, more than 70 percent of that capacity sits idle because wind power operates on average only 29 percent of the time.²

While wind advocates suggest that the cost of wind energy is around 4 cents per kilowatt hour, that figure applies to farms located in areas with unusually high wind speeds of approximately 16 miles per hour (Class 5 winds). This figure also includes a 1.5 cent per kilowatt hour federal subsidy plus the effect of favorable depreciation rates that reduce taxes.²

The cost of wind power at wind speeds in the Class 4 range (about 13 miles per hour) is 4.2 to 8.7 cents per kilowatt hour. Without the subsidy, the cost would be 5.7 to 10.2 cents per kilowatt hour.²

Wind turbines typically operate only 29 percent of the time because wind is intermittent.²

To supply customers with reliable electricity, wind facilities must be backed up with an equally sized conventional generator that compensates for wind generation's intermittent pattern. The cost of this reliability is considerable, as, at any given moment, half of the total capacity of a wind facility sits idle. Additional expenses are required to monitor the wind generation and add varying amounts of electricity from conventional sources.²

Wind generation costs 79 percent more than generation from state-of-the-art pulverized coal facilities.²

Land Use

Wind turbines must be spaced widely to avoid loss of efficiency through wake effects. Space demands can vary from 24 to 160 acres per megawatt of capacity. ²

A 50 megawatt wind farm requires from two to 25 square miles.²

"A wind farm requires as much as 85 times more space than a conventional gas-fired power plant."⁴

While as little as one percent of the land required for wind farms may be occupied by the "footprint" of the tower, the negative visual impact is wide. Many of the wind advocates eager to discount this impact appear unwilling to evaluate oil and gas production facilities using the same criteria.⁴

"It is simple to equate wind energy company tactics with the U.S. Forest Service which has a record of opening up de facto wilderness areas through timber sales and then using these former roadless areas to promote the multiple use ethic. The original goal may be different but the outcome is the same: the breaking up of formerly untouched, undeveloped land."¹⁰ (Colon added for clarity.)

Higher towers can sometimes be more cost-effective than short towers because wind speeds can range up to 60 percent higher farther from the ground. However, this is not always the case.²

Use of lighter, stronger materials has allowed wind towers to reach 160 feet or more--about the height of a 15-story building--thus adding to the negative visual impact.²

Subsidies

"A conservative estimate of the total U.S. taxpayer subsidy to wind power is more than $1,200 per installed kilowatt, even greater than the direct capital cost of wind under advanced technology of around $860 per kilowatt and certainly more than the installed capacity cost of gas-fired combined cycle of approximately

$580 per kilowatt."⁴

"The Department of Energy has spent $900 million (constant 1996 dollars) on wind energy subsidies through FY 1995." ⁴ Such subsidies have no counterpart in the fossil fuel industry. Even using a definition of "subsidy" that includes tax provisions available to all businesses, the cost of regulating the industry, and government assistance to low-income families for winter fuel, the excise taxes alone that are generated by the oil industry exceed "subsidies" by $2.2 billion annually.⁶

Environment

Wind towers shelter rodents seeking protection from birds of prey. Those birds are then attracted to the wind towers, where they are frequently killed.²

The bodies of birds killed by the blades of wind towers regularly cause fires that disrupt power supply and kill additional animals.⁴

On average, 39 golden eagles are killed each year at just one wind farm, Altamont Pass in California. Under the terms of the Bald Eagle Protection Act, federal civil penalties for killing this endangered species are $500 per incident; criminal penalties range up to $50,000 and one year in prison .^4&2

The Altamont Pass wind farm kills hundreds of redtail hawks and other birds each year, some of which are protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.⁴

Given the current rates of birds killed by wind towers, analysts project that about 880,000 birds per year would be killed if wind were used for 20 percent of U.S. electricity. ⁴

The Sierra Club has labeled wind towers "the Cuisinarts of the air."⁴

"Kenetech Windpower is right now figuring just how many birds it will ultimately be given permission to kill with its projects. 'Zero deaths' is not a consideration. . . . At this time, there is not enough research data on the impact wind machines have on birds to go forward with more wind power contracts."¹⁰

A single functioning wind tower is about half as noisy as a gasoline-powered lawn mower.⁴

"The noise is so great that people find it difficult to live in the vicinity of a wind farm,"⁶ thus increasing the likely distance of a facility from load centers and thereby increasing costs.

Wind facilities are not always liable for the land and habitat remediation costs applied to many other forms of energy, and the financial problems of some wind energy companies have cast doubts on their ability to deliver on promised remediation.⁹

"Wind power is not as benign a resource to extract as the public is led to believe. If one has ever flown over the Tehachapis one would see the soil disturbance and miles of access roads to these towers. . . . Much wind tower placement is on steep erosive soils. Prominent ridges are often clear-cut of trees and then reseeded with wind machines."¹⁰

References

¹ Pimentel et al., "Renewable Energy: Economic and Environmental Issues," BioScience, Sept. 1994.

² Resource Data International, "Energy Choices in a Competitive Era: The Role of Renewable and Traditional Energy Resources in America's Electric Generation Mix," April 1995, released by the Center for Energy and Economic Development (an arm of the coal industry). Available at <http://www.conx.com/ceed/elecgenmix/default.html>.

³ Center for Energy and Economic Development, response to the National Renewables Energy Laboratory's comments on Resource Data International's "Energy Choices in a Competitive Era: The Role of Renewable and Traditional Energy Resources in America's Electric Generation Mix," November 1995. Available at <http://www.conx.com/ceed/elecgenmix/default.html>.

⁴ Robert L. Bradley, Jr., "Renewable Energy -- Why Renewable Energy Is Not Cheap and Not Green," released by the National Center for Policy Analysis, Summer 1997. Available at <http://www.public-policy.org/~ncpa/studies/renew/renew.html>.

⁵ National Petroleum Council, The Potential for Natural Gas in the United States, (report to the Secretary of Energy), December 1992.

⁶ National Center for Policy Analysis, materials related to the 1997-98 national high school debate on renewables policy, Summer 1997. Available at <http://www.public-policy.org/~ncpa>.

⁷ Statistical Abstract of the United States 1993, Bureau of the Census, U.S. Department of Commerce, 1993.

⁸ Energy Information Administration, U.S. Department of Energy, Annual Energy Outlook 1997. Available at http://www.eia.doe.gov/fueloverview.html#forecasts.

⁹ Charles Bragg, "Conservation Notes," Newsletter of the Santa Monica Bay Audubon Society, December 1995. Available at http://www.audubon.org/chapter/ca/santamonicabay/V19N4.HTM#conservation.

¹⁰ Keith Axelson, "Do the Blades Go Deasil...or Widdershins...or Does It Really Make Any Difference?" Newsletter of the Santa Monica Bay Audubon Society, May 1995. Available at <http://www.audubon.org/chapter/ca/santamonicabay/v18n8.htm#Do The Blades>.

¹¹ Herbert Inhaber, "Energy Conservation is a Waste," Wall Street Journal, July 28, 1997.

¹² Public Citizen, "State-By-State Survey Shows Renewable Energy Use Expanding Rapidly," April 18, 1995. Available at <http://www.citizen.org/CMEP/renewables/renproj.html>.

This page was last updated August 31, 1997.