Opposition is mounting in almost every community targeted for wind farms. As U.S. Senator Alexander (R-Tenn.) said when introducing legislation in 2005 calling for a 20-mile setback from scenic resources:
"These wind turbines are not your grandmother's windmills, gently pumping water from the farm well. Here is just one example, which my colleagues from Alabama and South Carolina will especially appreciate. The University of Tennessee has the second largest football stadium in America, seating 107,000 people. Senator Sessions and I sat there while Auburn University beat the tar out of the University of Tennessee last year. I ask him to imagine that just one of these giant wind turbines would fit into that stadium. It would rise to more than twice the height of the highest skybox. Its rotor blades would stretch almost from 10-yard line to 10-yard line. And on a clear night, its flashing red lights could be seen for 20 miles. Usually, these wind turbines are located in wind farms containing 20 or more, but the number can be more than 100."
A policy leap of faith
New York State promotes wind energy projects under a state policy to increase to 25% New York's reliance on renewable energy production. New York has already achieved 19% renewables. Can the remaining five or six percent be provided by wind?
Potential environmental impacts of wind power plants
A wind power plant (not just a windmill or a wind turbine) involves 60 or more industrial wind turbines, each with an access road sturdy enough to accommodate a 500-ton crane to construct the turbine. To get the crane and other heavy equipment to a single turbine site requires clearing 50-75 acres. (See image.) All turbines must be connected with electricity transmission lines, either underground or above ground.
In sharp contrast to conventional power plants, wind power plants require a large footprint, on the order of 25 square miles. This often takes about half the land area of a rural town.
Development of a wind power plant can change drainage patterns and diminish water quality by silting up creeks, ponds and wetlands. Criss-crossing the countryside with access roads and transmission lines can fragment habitat and divert wildlife populations away from the area. Operation of wind turbines can kill birds and bats. The visual and noise impacts of wind turbines can diminish property values, offsetting gains to the host town by decreasing its property tax base. This can change the character of the community, which New York counts as an environmental effect.
However, there is no comprehensive state regulation of wind farms in New York. Therefore, wind energy developers can take advantage of rural towns on whose shoulders land use regulation falls.
Energy benefits of wind power plants
A 60-turbine wind power plant using 1.5 Megawatt turbines will be said to have a 90-MW capacity, but it's not so: industrial wind plants have effective operating capacities of 10%, even in areas with maximum wind resources (14 mph mean wind speed or more). On the glacial ridges in New York, mean wind speeds are less, and effective capacity of wind turbines can be expected to decline accordingly.
Wind is the least efficient renewable energy source because it the most intermittent. This imposes substantial costs on the operators of the regional electricity grid, who are required by law to accept wind energy interconnections and pay for extra balancing services to manage the on-again off-again nature of connected wind energy. These costs are passed on to consumers.
Wind's irregularity means it generates the least electricity when it's needed most, in late summer daytime. It produces most when needed least, in winter nighttime. As a result, wind power plants have not displaced the need for a single conventional power plant in Europe, where wind plants have been operating for a generation. Conventional power plants must keep running to provide electricity when it is needed.
Investment schemes
New York's largest wind farm, the Maple Ridge Wind Farm in Lewis County, about 195 turbines on the Tug Hill Plateau, has been sold twice since operations began in 2005. It is common for large industrial wind power plants to be sold within two years of obtaining all required approvals. This is because grants and subsidies are leveraged to finance these projects, often approaching the entire cost of the purchase and installation of the plant's wind turbines. Once it is up and running, investors want the plant sold to obtain a quick return and move on to the next investment.
In fact, wind power plants make much more from the public money they receive than from the electricity they sell. Tax incentives offered by New York and the federal government include 1) providing income tax credits and deductions for the cost of purchasing and installing a renewable power source; 2) exempting the value of equipment from property tax valuations; 3) permitting accelerated depreciation of equipment; and 4) exempting such equipment from state sales taxes.
Tax credits include the controversial federal Production Tax Credit (PTC) which pays wind companies 2 cents per kw for a ten-year period, for electricity actually generated. The PTC and accelerated depreciation credits against taxes together will generally pay for the most of the cost of constructing a wind farm. So dependent is the wind industry on the PTC that each time it was not renewed, in 1999, 2001 and 2003, new installed wind capacity declined 93, 73 and 77 percent, respectively. Currently, the PTC is only available to facilities put in service by January 1, 2009.
In New York, wind energy companies get even more, since state law requires the local power companies to pay alternative sources connected to the grid, NYSERDA pays additional incentives to utility scale wind farms out of some $175 million per year collected from charges to ratepayers for renewable energy projects, and unless disallowed by local law, for the first 15 years of operation state law makes wind power plants tax exempt.
And what does the town hosting such a plant get in return? Realtors in towns with these kind of wind plants report that property values of homes within sight of a battery of wind turbines. Because the turbines are sited on ridge tops, the impact on home values extends many miles away. In some communities the wind energy company has had to buy homes of complaining homeowners and sell them at fire sale prices–its cheaper than a nuisance lawsuit.
However, nuisance suits can't be stopped. Neighboring landowners who don't sign an easement agreement can still sue their neighbor for allowing a nuisance. Local laws establishing setbacks less than a mile are therefore setting up their communities for divisive neighbor-against- neighbor litigation. And understandably so, because the nuisance and safety impacts of a local law with inappropriate setbacks or buffer zones between wind turbines and homes should have been looked at in the first place.
And what do the people of the State of New York get in return? As noted above, wind energy cannot replace conventional power plants or lower the cost of electricity. To generate 300 MW (typical actual generation rate for a base-load conventional power plant), operating at 20% capacity, at least 12 wind plants (each comprised of 60 turbines with 2.0 MW capacity per turbine) will be needed. Each wind plant can be expected to have a 10,000 acre footprint. Sixteen 60-turbine wind plants taking up as much as 120,000 acres (187.5 square miles) will cost far more, and have far more impact on the community than one conventional power plant.
As wind turbines get larger, researchers have responded by studying how noise and visual impacts combine to explain escalating reports of health effects. Health problems do not appear to be present where wind turbines are located at a safe distance from homes.
Potential health impacts of industrial wind turbines
To avoid sleep disturbance, the World Health Organization recommends nighttime limits for community noise be no higher than 30 dB(A) in bedrooms. Ontario, Canada, has imposed a limit of 40 dB(A) at residential property lines on noise from wind turbines. Most towns in NY are adopting local laws recommended by the wind industry with a limit of 50 dB(A). Each increase of 10 db(A) is experienced as a doubling of noise. Measurements of operating wind farms find sustained levels in excess of 70 dB(A) well over 1,000 feet away.
Few wind energy developers in Europe site industrial wind turbines closer than a half-mile from a dwelling. Complaints about the health impacts of industrial noise from wind turbines have led to a growing consensus that a safe buffer zone from people is about one mile.
In western New York, wind energy companies are asking for local laws establishing setbacks of 1,000 feet or less. Easement agreements with local landowners preclude any complaint by the landowner for droning noise, loss of hunting resources, migraine-inducing "shadow flicker" cast nearly a mile away when the blades catch the sun, and damages from wind turbines leaking oil or ice thrown hundreds of feet at high velocity. At the same time, these companies are telling town boards and planning boards that wind turbines are quiet and safe.
SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH
Noise:
HEALTH STANDARDS
Noise:
World Health Organization, "Guidelines for Community Noise" (1999) (Section 3.4: "Uninterrupted sleep is known to be a prerequisite for good physiological and mental functioning of healthy persons. . . . primary physiological effects can . . . be induced by noise during sleep, including increased blood pressure; increased heart rate; increased finger pulse amplitude; vasoconstriction; changes in respiration; cardiac arrhythmia; and an increase in body movements. . . . secondary effects include reduced perceived sleep quality; increased fatigue; depressed mood or well-being; and decreased performance." WHO therefore recommends a limit on nighttime noise of 30 dB(A) in bedrooms.) Compare below, Ubly, Michigan study.
Noise study critical of Noble assessment in Ubly, Michigan (January 2007) "Nighttime levels in the homes are expected to be in the low to mid 20 dBA range based on the tests conducted inside the residences of the study participants. The turbines would set the outdoor background sound levels approximately 20 dB higher (steady sound of 40-45 dBA) than the naturally occurring nighttime sounds and thus could cause sleep interference. This would be especially true for people who leave windows open in the evening and nighttime." (p. 8)
INDUSTRY
Mergers & acquisitions
Tetra Tech, Inc. (Pasadena, CA) has acquired the Delaney Group, a New York-based firm with annual revenues of about $60 million that has participated in several wind energy development projects, including the Maple Ridge Wind Farm in the Tug Hill region of New York, which Tetra Tech describes as the largest wind farm east of the Mississippi River. --EBJ's Weekly News Update- April 25, 2007
GOVERNMENT INCENTIVES & THE REAL CAPACITY OF WIND ENERGY
E.ON Netz manages about one-half of all wind power integrated into the grid in Germany, the world's leading user of industrial wind power. The E.ON Netz 2005 Wind Energy Report concludes that the intermittent nature of wind results in a capacity factor of less 20% under the best circumstances, and cannot diminish the need for baseline power plants. (Discussions of the report here and here.)
Turbine manufacturer GE Energy reports that while utility-scale wind turbines have a capacity of 30%, their effective capacity is 10% because most of their contribution to the electricity grid occurs during off-peak times (at night and in the winter) when it's not needed.
New York's Public Service Commission (PSC) administers limited regulation of industrial wind plants under Article VII of the state Public Services Law. Under Article VII, PSC must issue wind plants a Certificate of Environmental Compatibility and Public Need.
Jon Boone, "The Wayward Wind," June 19, 2006 Good discussion of "capacity factor" (the actual electricity we can expect commercial wind plants to generate) and the high cost of public subsidies for commercial wind, focused on the Noble's Bliss Windpark project in Wyoming County.
IMPACT ON GREEHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS
EXPERIENCE AT EXISTING WIND FARMS
Huron County, Michigan (get an idea of how much money wind companies pay local host communities compared to their revenue)
LEGISLATIVE INITIATIVES
COMMUNITY ACTION GROUPS
ENHANCED GEOTHERMAL ENERGY
MIT study: 100,000 MW from enhanced geothermal systems can be achieved in the United States within 50 years with a modest, multiyear federal investment.
WHAT'S NEW
Not everyone's happy in Bliss: now that Noble Environmental has put up 55 of 67 turbines in the Hamlet of Bliss (Wyoming Co.), some residents say the wind farm is more intrusive than they expected.
Profit, not power, the major goal behind wind farms: a November 6 article in the The Observer-Dispatch (Utica, NY), by John Droz, Jr., a physicist with a 20-plus year track record of interest in the environment. He lives at Brantingham Lake, Lewis County, in the Adirondacks.
Iowa State University Center for Agricultural Law and Taxation has a guide for landowners faced with an easement offer from a wind power company.
Potter County in northwest Pennsylvania enacted a local wind energy facility law that requires 2,900-foot setbacks from residential property lines.
The western New York Town of Allegany enacted a local wind energy facility law that limits increases in noise from wind turbines to 3 db(A) over background sound levels.
At least two new towns have banned industrial-sized wind power plants: Malone and Italy. Contact us if you'd like a copy of their local laws.
Citizen coalition files anti-trust complaint against wind energy companies A complaint filed on April 25 by a coalition of 94 citizens from New York, Vermont, and other states with the U.S. Department of Justice alleges an international cartel in cooperation with local town officials throughout New York and the New England states is violating the Sherman Antitrust Act by engaging in price fixing, bid rigging and allocating the market among the companies so as to eliminate competition. Click here for the coalition's Press Release and Complaint.
Wind energy's technological limits make it unlikely to generate much more than 1% of our future electrical energy needs. We could reduce many times more of our energy needs by directing subsidies that now go to wind, to municipal, commercial and home energy reduction plans, and to real long-term alternatives to polluting sources like enhanced geothermal energy.
“Community wind” refers to wind energy projects designed to optimize local benefits, particularly for rural communities. Such projects involve local ownership beyond just land leases or local tax revenue. More information can be obtained from Farmers' Legal Action Group.
Recommended video:
(scroll down to near bottom of page)
In New York the State Environmental Quality Review Act requires comprehensive environmental impact review. However, responsibility for environmental review lies with the host town, generally ill-prepared to undertake such review of large projects. All other state agencies are "involved agencies," limited to their specific permitting authority.
New York's largest coal-fired power plant, Niagara Mohawk's Huntley plant, has a 336 MW capacity and operates at about 80% capacity. The Indian Point 3 nuclear power plant has a capacity of 970 MW, the Fitzpatrick nuclear power plant is 820 MW, both operating at 90% capacity or better.
See the discussion of “capacity factor,” below.
June 1, 2008
Wind will not help us avoid dependence on foreign oil. Most of our electricity comes from coal-fired and nuclear plants; very little oil is burned to produce electricity, and the U.S does not rely on foreign fuel imports for electricity.
A wind power plant in the Town of Eagle (Wyoming Co.) has been approved, and the company wants to put wind plants in the aqdjacent towns of Centerville
(Allegany Co.) and Farmersville (Cattaraugus Co.) along a common set of ridges. The interconnected combined plant would result be comprised of about 200 turbines. Instead of the taxes on the value of the roughly $300 million hardware investment (plus land, roads, power lines and substations worth as much), an annual payment-in-lieu of taxes gets negotiated for about $200,000. This must be shared among county, school and town budgets.
In the towns of Bliss, Centerville, Farmersville, Sheldon, Cohocton, Clayton and Orleans, town boards have been told they did not have to look at the potential for negative impacts of noise standards and home setbacks until later, when an application was submitted for a wind plant. By then it's too late, because the applicant has achieved its main goal, a local law with setbacks that are short enough to accommodate 60 interconnected turbines, but too short to protect people, and noise limits of 50 decibels at the exterior wall of homes, too high to protect people's right to peace and quiet and sleep.
The western New York Town of Bethany impaneled a very talented group of local residents to study "the possible ramifications of the placement of [commercial wind energy conversion systems] within the Town. The town used a 12-month moratorium, which it found necessary to extend by six more months, to allow the study committee to prepare a report on what they learned. The Report from the Bethany Wind Turbine Study Committee (2.2MB download) is a balanced, thoughtful analysis of pro's and con's. Every town should have such a committee. If they do, thanks to Bethany their committee can build on this work and add the findings of new research as it becomes available.
How much land is needed for a utility-scale wind plant?
The Maple Ridge Wind Farm comes close: 195 turbines rated at 1.65 MW each (321.75 MW) has a project area of 21,000 acres (32.8 sq. mi.), or slightly greater than AWEA's prediction of 19,305 acres.
However, the Allegany Windpark proposed by Noble Environmental Power for Rushford and Centerville would have 67 turbines rated at 1.5 MW each (100.5 MW), with a project area of 15,360 acres (24 sq. mi.), more than double AWEA's prediction of 6,030 acres.
According to the Manhattan Institute (Energy & the Environment: Myths & Facts, pp. 28-29), "To generate the electricity that a typical 1,000-megawatt coal-fired or nuclear power plant produces would require a utility-scale wind plant using 60,000 acres of land," that is, 93.7 sq. mi. (However, if the Allegany Windpark is the measure, at a 10% effective capacity, 10 MW generated on 24 square miles requires 2,400 square miles to achieve 1,000 MW.) "Wind and solar energy, moreover, are not constant. The wind does not always blow, and the sun does not always shine. Nuclear reactors, coal furnaces, and gas-fired plants, on the other hand, can produce electricity virtually around the clock, using far less space." "Consequently, policymakers at the federal and state levels should resist calls to implement renewable portfolio standards that would only serve to drive up prices for consumers and provide less reliable supplies of energy." (p. 35)
"Net metering," a policy requiring payment to an alternative electricity generator that connects to the grid at the retail rate charged by utilities for electricity, applies in New York only to "residential and farm service wind electric generating equipment owned or operated by a customer-generator." NY Public Service Law § 66-l(2) (2006). Industrial wind farms are paid at an "avoided cost" rate, the cost to conventional utilities to produce the electricity.
From the National Grid White Paper (2006):
"In the current interconnection process, the generator developer applies to the transmission provider for an interconnection after identifying a proposed site. The transmission provider must then perform a system impact study to determine what interconnection facilities and system upgrades would be necessary to connect that generator to the electric system. To manage requests for interconnection, a transmission provider has an intake process referred to as a queue. The interconnection queue provides for orderly management of requests under a first-come first-served approach, and serves as the basis for assigning cost responsibility to generation developers for transmission upgrades.
"Ideally, all generator applications would be processed in a timely manner. However, the queue process can become burdensome particularly if significant transmission upgrades are required for a project. Queue position can have real commercial significance; a long wait in the interconnection queue can have serious consequences for the financial viability of projects, particularly renewable projects if they are dependent on the recently extended federal PTC."
Former NYS Governor Spitzer proposed reviving Article X of the NY Public Services Law, which lapsed in 2002. A new Article X would preempt local laws (including zoning laws) governing wind energy facilities. If it also includes siting restrictions that set back wind turbines far enough from home to avoid complaints, that would be a good thing.
Hot rock ("enhanced") geothermal energy can produce very reliable baseload capacity, and can operate 24 hours a day waste-free, virtually emissions-free. According to an MIT study (see left) known Enhanced Geothermal resources in the U.S.have the potential to generate an astonishing 56,000 times the nation's energy needs, for slightly less cost per megawatt than wind. On a per-megawatt basis, the footprint of an enhanced geothermal plant is less than the footprint required for a nuclear plant.
