FACT SHEET PUTTINGRealiti WIND POWER MYTHS INTO PERSPECTIVE Getting the Facts Straight Harnessing the power of the wind In addition, many of our older power has become one of the fastest plants, particularly nuclear and coal, Denmark is a world leader in growing sources of global electricity are nearing the end of their lives. integrating wind power. Every generation. As countries strive to That presents a challenge — and an year since 2000, the country has develop clean and secure energy opportunity. systems, more scientists, policy produced enough electricity from Canada has the potential to generate makers and communities are looking the wind to supply close to 20% to wind power as an important part at least 20% of its power from the of its national demand. of the solution. wind by 2025.
As new opportunities emerge to Canada currently generates its power from the following sources: Global Wind Capacity develop wind-power generation in (Cumulative MegaWatts Installed) communities across Canada, they • 60% hydro 140,000 • 15% coal 120,000 raise reasonable questions about the 100,000 social, environmental and economic • 13% nuclear 80,000 • 9% natural gas 60,000 impacts of large-scale wind power 40,000 production. • 3% other sources 20,000 0 • 1% wind power 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 This fact sheet aims to help answer (Source: National Energy Board 2008) those questions, and to distill the Canadian Wind Capacity realities of wind power from the (Cumulative MegaWatts Installed) Increasing the supply of energy from myths and misconceptions. clean, renewable sources like the 2,500 wind will create new jobs and 2,000 Canada’s options 1,500
decrease our dependence on non- 1,000 Currently, electricity produces 17% renewable and high-polluting energy 500 0 of all greenhouse gas pollution in sources. This will become even more 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 Canada — that’s more than what is important as consumers put more produced by the oil sands or by all demand on the power grid in the ▲ Wind power installations have of the cars on Canadian roads. future through the use of new grown by rates of 20–30% both technologies such as the electric car. globally and in Canada. (Source: Global Wind Energy Council)
Photos: (main) Toronto Renewable Energy Co-operative; (top) Tim Weis, The Pembina Institute “A green, renewable energy economy isn’t Reducing carbon pollution some pie-in-the sky, Generating electricity with a wind turbine emits no greenhouse gasses, and far-off future — it is every unit of electricity produced can be used to replace power from fossil now. It is creating fuel plants. Denmark increased its reliance on wind power from 3% of its jobs — now. And it total electricity supply up to 19.7% between 1991 and 2007. That, along Photo: The White House can create millions of with other measures, reduced emissions from electricity production by 30% additional jobs, an entire new industry, over the same period, while the country’s GDP grew by 45%. if we act now.” It does take energy to build a wind turbine, but life-cycle studies done by – U.S. President Barack Obama Risø laboratories in Denmark found that this energy is quickly recovered once the turbine is Emissions Resulting from Danish Electricity Production functioning. It takes about Benefits of developing wind power: 3,600 MWh of energy to 29,000 build a typical wind turbine 1 Creating jobs in project development, 27,000
2 that will generate roughly construction, maintenance and manufacturing. 25,000 23,000 6,000 MWh per year, so the 21,000 electricity required for 2 Stabilizing long-term electricity costs as the fuel 19,000 Tonnes CO Tonnes manufacturing is recovered source (the wind) is not depleted and does not 17,000 15,000 within seven to eight increase in price. 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 (adjusted for exports and temperature) months. (Source: Danish Energy Agency) 3 Creating healthier living conditions by reducing air emissions including carbon dioxide, mercury, sulfur and nitrogen oxides. Ecological considerations 4 Not leaving future generations with the risk and Compared to coal, oil, natural gas, nuclear “Audubon strongly supports responsibility of managing wastes. and hydro, wind power generation has the least impact on wildlife, according to properly-sited wind power as research commissioned by New York State a clean alternative energy Energy Research and Development. Wind source that reduces the threat farms must undergo environmental of global warming.” assessments on a case-by-case basis to – American Audubon Society minimize any potential harm. Some local populations of birds and bats may be negatively affected by wind development. At the few sites where bat populations have been adversely affected, preliminary research suggests that bat fatalities have been reduced by more than 50% by shutting down the turbines for a few hours a week at certain wind speeds and at times of night when bats are particularly Causes of Human Related Bird Fatalities active. Research has Number per 10,000 Fatalities also shown that, on average, a typical Wind Turbines <1 turbine in North Communication Towers 50 America kills just two Pesticides 710 birds each year. In Vehicles 850 contrast, around Cats 1060 10,000 birds die each High Tension Lines Photo: Tim Weis, The Pembina Institute The Pembina Photo: Tim Weis, 1370 year from colliding Buildings/Windows ▲ The United States is the world’s largest 5820 with office towers in market for wind power, employing more than Toronto. 85,000 people. (Source: AWEA) (Source: A Summary and Comparison of Bird Mortality from Anthroprogenic Cases with an Emphasis on Collisions; Erickson, et al.) Economic considerations The communities surrounding wind power projects can benefit from new jobs, increases in municipal tax revenues, landowner lease payments on the order of several thousand dollars per turbine, and potential spin-offs such as tourism. In Pincher Creek, Alberta, for instance, wind farms generate more than a quarter of the municipal district’s annual revenue, and have become a significant employer in the region. As the industry has grown in the last decade, the costs of wind power have decreased Photo: Tim Weis, The Pembina Institute steadily. Onshore wind power typically costs 8–12 ¢/kWh, depending largely on how After examining 25,000 properties windy the site is and how far it is from existing power transmission lines. This cost is already competitive with many other power sources, and once turbines are installed, within 8 km of wind farms, the the cost of generating wind power will remain steady for decades. By contrast, Renewable Energy Policy Project electricity prices have risen steadily across Canada over time. Regulations to make found “...no evidence that property polluters pay for their emissions will mean that the cost of power from fossil fuels will values decreased as a result of wind continue to rise, on top of normal market fluctuations. farms.” In fact, for the great majority of projects, property values actually rose more quickly for properties within sight of the wind farm than in the rest of the community. Values of properties within sight of the wind farm also increased faster once the projects came online than they had before. (Sterzinger, et al. 2004)
Photo: David Dodge, The Pembina Institute Germany has integrated almost 15% of its power from renewable energy sources at a n an average year, a single cost of less than $4/month per household. And while Germans pay more per kWh of wind turbine (1.8 MW) electricity than Canadians, by using energy more efficiently, a typical German household pays less per month than its Canadian counterpart. will produce 6,000 MWh of electricity, or enough Producing reliable power power for more than 750 Canadian homes. Using this At low levels, the natural variations in the wind are dwarfed by the normal fluctuations in the electrical system that are caused, for instance, when consumers wind turbine rather than turn appliances on or off. Variations in the output from wind turbines can be burning coal to produce predicted and balanced by grid operators using complementary energy sources. electricity will leave 2,700 Some remote communities in Australia and Alaska can supply up to 100% of their tonnes of coal in the ground electricity from the wind. Adding more than 5–10% of power to a provincial grid usually requires new transmission and reduce greenhouse gas “We said that the electricity system could networks and long-term planning. But a emissions by 6,000 tonnes not function if wind power increased recent General Electric study for the annually. That’s equivalent to above 500 MW. Now [2003] we are Ontario Power Authority found that taking 1,260 cars off the handling almost five times as much. And I Ontario — Canada’s leader in wind would like to tell the government that we energy — could increase its wind road or planting 30,000 are ready to handle even more…” capacity over 10 times its 2006 levels trees. without major infrastructure upgrades. – Western Danish system operator ELTRA Photo: (upper) Tim Weis, The Pembina Institute; (lower) Ontario Power Generation Health and noise considerations Using wind energy in place of Since the early 1980s, more than For decades, thousands of people in non-renewable fuels, such as coal, 68,000 turbines have been installed Europe have lived and worked near reduces air pollution and other around the world, with more than wind turbines. A relatively small wastes known to have acute and 30,000 currently operating in North number of people have reported . America. Before they are approved, experiencing conditions such as chronic health impacts wind projects must pass government headaches and difficulty sleeping, regulated environmental assessments, which has prompted numerous In Canada, Chatham-Kent Public limits on noise and minimum studies for peer-reviewed scientific Health examined whether health setbacks. Ontario’s current setbacks journals and government regulatory problems could be attributed to wind are more stringent than those in bodies. turbines. It found that, as long as the eight European countries. Ministry of Environment Guidelines A 2006 study for the UK Trade and for location criteria are respected, the As a result of advances in technology, Industry Department found “there is impacts of wind turbines on the the sound levels emitted by modern no evidence of health effects arising health of local residents would be wind turbines have steadily from infrasound or low frequency “negligible.” The report concluded: decreased, but they are not perfectly noise generated by wind turbines,” “Although opposition to wind farms silent. The chart below compares while the UK National Health on aesthetic grounds is a legitimate sound from modern utility-scale Services found “no conclusive point of view, opposition to wind turbines to other sounds people evidence that wind turbines have an farms on the basis of potential encounter every day. effect on health.” adverse health consequences is not justified by the evidence.”
In October 2009, Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health issued a memorandum stating that, while some people may find the noise from wind turbines “annoying,” a comprehensive scientific review found “no evidence of noise-induced heath effects at levels emitted by Courtesy: AWEA wind turbines.” The eye of the beholder Wind turbines are dominating features on a landscape. Many people consider them graceful, but others find them intrusive. Surveys have found that support for wind farms increases the closer a community is to a project. Widespread consultation and engagement with communities, experts and other stakeholders More Information remains the key to choosing appropriate locations for future wind projects. Inform yourself! You’ll find videos,
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Attitudes Toward Energy Sources in the EU ▲ Nowhere is wind and summaries of the latest power more research on wind and other Solar prominent on the renewables at re.pembina.org. Wind In Favour landscape or in Hydro closer proximity to This fact sheet was prepared by Ocean Balanced Biomass Views people than in Tim Weis, Director of Renewable Ntrl Gas Energy for the Pembina Institute. Opposed Europe, where polls Oil show very strong Coal Don't Know public support. Nuclear (Source: European 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% Commission, 2007)