by Dustin Doty
My home state of Iowa is the number two state in wind energy
production. Texas is number one and Iowa is closely followed by California.
Wind energy has been a big part of my life for the past few years and it has
made me realize the importance of renewable energy sources like wind. It all
started in the summer between my sophomore and junior years of high school.
During this time my neighbor hired me to travel with him to Illinois and set up
some wind test turbines. Test towers are set up with anemometers to test wind
speed at various heights. They use these measurements to determine if the area
is a good place to set up a wind farm.
A few years later just before I graduated high school we had
found out that there was a company that wanted to build a wind farm next to my
hometown. I applied and with my prior experience putting up the test towers I
got the job. I ended up working for the company for about a year and a half. I
worked on many different crews and on two wind farms. This was a big learning
experience for me. I learned a lot about the wind turbines, how they work, what
goes into building them, and how they affect the community.
There are many ways that wind farms affect the community. If
you ask me the positives outweigh the negatives. For example some of the
positives are how much it positively affected the economy of the town. There were
a large number of residents that got hired to help build the turbines,
including me. All of the houses that were for rent were rented out by all of
the workers that moved there. The restaurants were always busy from the workers
that were on break, or just got off work. The local gravel pits had trucks
lined up all the time hauling gravel to build the roads to the turbines. The
cement companies were always busy mixing cement for the bases of the towers.
The landowners got paid so much per turbine that was built on their land and so
much per foot of road.
Some of the most common negatives things that I have heard are
that the turbines are an eyesore and that they are too noisy. Yes the turbines
can be an eyesore to some people but I would rather look at wind turbines on
the horizon that a giant coal burning power plant. For the noise aspect after
living by them I can say that I would rather hear the light whooshing of the
turbine blades that live next to an interstate and have to listen to cars and
semis drive by back and forth all day long.
Having a wind farm put up in your area isn’t the only way to
utilize this source of energy; there are many smaller options that can be
bought to run your house. Wind turbines are an important source of renewable
energy that is clean and cost effective and I believe that it should be
something for everyone to look into.
References
Wind Powering America. Energy efficiency and renewable
Energy. 9/12/12
http://www.windpowering
America.gov/wind_installed_capacity.asp
2 comments:
I completely agree with you on the need to use wind power. I have drove through Iowa many times and seen the wind farms and I really don't think they look that bad. If it wasn't for the wind turbines all there would be is agriculture fields anyway so it actually gives you something else to look at. I agree they are good for the economy as well because not only do they need to be built but from what I have been told they take a fair amount of maintenance as well which would be good for local business. As far as negatives go, I have heard one of the biggest drawbacks is on raptor bird populations. Overall though I would have to agree that building more wind farms would be a very good thing for everyone.
I would also have to agree that we need to move towards other sources of energy, and wind is a good option. I can see however why people would not want wind turbines in their backyard, especially if they have lived with the same scenery for many years. One issue I see with wind farms, is that we will eventually run out of land to put them on. Also, will they begin to clear forests and other lands used for recreation to build future wind farms?
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