Rising concerns over global warming and climate change, energy security, on-going tension in the middle-east, gradual depletion of fossil fuels while the global demand steadily increases, also in hindsight society’s increased green consciousness led to search for alternative sources of cleaner energy. It is easy to see why the interests have shifted to viable and all available forms of renewable energy. The world has started acknowledging that getting energy from wind is a viable, cost effective and reliable option with the help of the advancement of renewable energy technologies. We are now experiencing an obvious reflection of that in the world market for wind turbines, which set a new record in the year 2011 and reached a total size of 42 Giga watt, after 37,6 Giga watt in 2010 (World Wind Energy Association, 7 February 2012). Steve Sawyer; General Secretary at Global Wind Energy Council in 2011 stated that ‘The success of wind power over the past 15 years is truly extraordinary. With nearly 240,000 MW of installed capacity at the end of 2011, this is more than 30 times what it was in 1997, when the Kyoto Protocol was adopted.’
On the other hand, growing public discontent with the wind turbines commonly described as 'Not in My Backyard' syndrome has also grown along with the use of wind turbines. Many people may want off-shore wind turbines, but not necessarily they will want wind turbines in their own backyards. It is perfectly understandable and decision makers, developers and pro-green groups should acknowledge it and take all necessary steps to avoid local public opposition and uneasiness.
However, in saying this, public participation process in the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is the key and first step in an application process where interested and affected parties are brought together to discuss the possible negative impacts and benefits and if necessary alternative projects are considered on proposed controversial sites. Therefore, the notion of imposed large scale commercial wind turbine sites by the developers particularly in the built areas would simply be an immature argument. Usually large scale wind turbines wouldn’t be considered in the first place in the built areas where it is obvious that tall buildings and big trees can prevent natural wind flow that in turn would reduce the efficiency of the wind turbines. The gaps or passes of the mountains, coastal areas, hill tops and often open plains are the most preferred places for installation of wind turbines.
Wind turbines vary in different sizes according to the amount of electricity they produce, for example 100 watts to 6 kilowatts. Even larger wind turbines are available which can produce up to 50 kilowatts of electricity for the bigger community projects. Technologically it is therefore viable and available according to needs of different sites such as private housings, schools, shopping centres, car parks, business areas, community centres etc.
However, up until now, there have been many common myths around wind turbines and public perceptions that have naturally followed and concentrated where the controversial proposed sites made the bad news coverage. But, are wind turbines really bad for the birds? Are they noisy, unsafe, decrease the property values, loss of agriculture lands, also an eyesore for many that destroy scenic views of the pristine nature? However, most of these common myths are based mostly on misunderstandings and old wind energy technologies.
New technologies and tighter environmental regulations have changed many things over the past decade. A typical annoyance such as noise emission is not a problem anymore as the noise from the gearboxes and generators are significantly curbed by using insulations. So, left with only aerodynamics noise from the rotor blades, which have also been optimised using modern technology such as using pitch control and minimising rotational speed under 65 m/s at the tip (Barrios and Rodriguez, 2004).
It’s true that many birds died in California and Spain in the 1980s due to poor planning and technologies that were used at that time but the mass killing is simply not happening at present due to better understanding of bird’s behaviour, knowing flight patterns of migratory birds and vigorous EIA processes. According to a new study conducted by British researchers from the environmental group The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), Scottish Natural Heritage and British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), there is no evidence of long-term damage to bird populations as a result of wind turbine operations (Schrader, 2012).
May be wind turbine is an eyesore and annoyance for some people but it’s a tiny problem compared to its positive contribution to the greater good of our planet and the society. The benefits from the wind turbines definitely outweigh the disadvantages. I think wind turbines are viable and an effective option - let’s not fall out of love with it just because some people are uncomfortable.
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