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Mira Lora

Ms. Woelke

APEL

2019 November 15

Important Factors when Considering Wind Farms

Wind turbines have been a topic of mass discussion recently especially concerning their

negative characteristics and how they affect their value. It has been known to be unsteady and an

unreliable source at times considering it is dependant on the climate and weather. It has also

repeatedly shown to be a disturbance to humans living near them giving them symptoms such

as:“nausea, vertigo, blurred vision, unsteady movement, and difficulty reading, remembering,

and thinking” but this only concerns a small part of the population that lives by wind turbines

(Source C). On a global scale, wind turbines are environmentally friendly, cost efficient, and

provide “about as much electricity as eight large nuclear power plants”(Source B). Even though

they cause a small annoyance to a small part of the population that lives near them, wind turbines

are extremely cost efficient, even to the point of helping and sustaining many economies that use

them at a larger scale and they are effective in creating an abundant source of energy along with

being extremely environmentally safe.

One of the major concerns over windmills and wind farms include their cost, but over

time windmills have shown their value and that they are cost efficient. A small town by the name

of McCamey introduced wind power in 2000 and soon enough “wind power restored

McCamey’s economy” allowing taxes to only be “increased by 30 percent from 2004 to 2007”

which is 20 percent below average (Source D). This means that since the time windmills were
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introduced to this small, texas town, their economy got better showing that wind mills brought

money into their homes rather than out. Of course there’s the initial output of money to install

windmills, but this output of money is quickly replenished after a few months of owning their

own source of energy. Because of these fiscal statistics, windmills have gained much support

from this small town, in fact, “federal tax credits, coupled with Texas mandate required that a

percentage of electricity come from green power producer,” such as the windmill (Source D).

This shows that citizens are satisfied with environmentally safe energy producers, such as the

windmill, especially since they decided to make a percentage of their power come from such a

source and continue to pay taxes supporting these new power-producing changes. In

consideration of these statistics and the overwhelming support towards windmills, it is assured

that cost is not a problem when it comes to windmills and/or wind farms.

Because of their reputation for being environmentally safe, not many trust that windmills

can provide enough energy to sustain everyday modern and technology filled lives, but some

would argue that not only are windmills environmentally safe, they also provide more than

enough energy. Most people don’t know that a “typically large wind turbine can generate up to

1.8 MW degrees of electricity, or 5.2 million KWh annually- enough to power nearly 600

households: (Source B) . This is just as much, or more, than a typical nuclear or coal power plant

generates. This shows that windmills can easily generate enough energy to satisfy our need for

energy. Windmills are increasingly making more energy and are the most efficient when

converting fuel to energy compared to coal, oil, natural gas, biomass, solar, nuclear, hydro, and

geothermal by an astounding 1,164 percent (Source F). This means that overall windmills are the

most effective in doing their jobs and also the most clean and renewable source. This is
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important because it is a new way to get more energy for about the same cost while also reducing

the harmful stress being put on our environment by constant oil spills and stripping of natural

resources. Reviewing these perspective-altering facts, the myth that windmills don’t produce as

much energy as it’s less environmentally safe counterparts has been crushed and replaced with

the fact that windmills generate more than enough energy.

Overall, windmills are a sustainable and renewable source of energy, they are cost

efficient and provide enough energy to continue supporting our modern and technology filled

lives. Windmills are overall environmentally friendly and clean. Wind turbines can soon provide

energy to places that don’t have a centralized source of energy. Potential disadvantages aside,

windmills could further assist our environmental and climate problems and our economy while

also bringing comfort to our homes and continuing to advance technologies. Windmills are a

helpful and advanced way to bring energy to our country. In simple terms, Windmills are a

perfect example of the saying “modern problems require modern solutions”.