The world's fastest growing energy source on a percentage basis
Access to low-cost financing
Technology is steadily improving (rotor blade airfoils specially designed for wind turbines, variable-speed generators, power electronics, sophisticated computer modeling of design changes)
Wind is "inflation-proof" – once a wind plant is built, the cost of energy is known, and is not affected by fuel market price volatility
Wind plants can be built quickly to respond to predicted electricity shortages
Domestic energy source
Inexhaustible supply – U.S. winds could generate more electricity in 15 years than all of Saudi Arabia's oil, without being depleted
If a wind plant is damaged, there is no secondary threat to the public (such as in the release of radioactivity, explosions, or the breaching of a dam)
Pre-construction site surveys are now standard, reduce threat to birds to minimal levels; cats, hunters, glass windows, communications towers are far more dangerous to birds
Minimal footprint, can be placed on working farms or ranches
No pollution impact on people, wildlife, or habitats
Sound reduced to low levels – a wind turbine a quarter of a mile away is no louder than a kitchen refrigerator
No mining or drilling required for fuel
No toxic waste
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
To generate the same amount of electricity as a single 1-MW turbine using the average U.S. utility fuel mix would mean emissions of 9 tons of sulphur dioxide and 4 tons of nitrogen oxide each year
To generate the same amount of electricity as a single 1-MW wind turbine for 20 years would require burning 29,000 tons of coal (a line of 10-ton trucks 11 miles long) or 92,000 barrels of oil
To generate the same amount of electricity as today's U.S. wind turbine fleet (25,170 MW) would require burning 36 million tons of coal (a line of 10-ton trucks over 13,000 miles long) or 112 million barrels of oil each year
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