Advancing renewable energy is an extremely important environmental issue. The longer we rely primarily on fossil fuels for power, the more greenhouse gases are emitted into the air, destroying the Earth’s ozone layer. Wind power is not the single or immediate solution to this problem, but it is a start. Unlike power plants that combust fossil fuels to create energy, wind turbines don’t release carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide, …show more content…
As one of the lowest-priced renewable energy sources available to us, wind energy is incredibly cost effective. Depending on financing and resources, generating wind energy only costs up to six cents per kilowatt-hour. Unfortunately, wind power would still be competing with conventional energy sources based on investment costs. Even though the initial investment for the technology required for wind power may turn out to be higher than fossil-fuel generators, if this can be overlooked, the money invested could be quickly made back due to the low cost and high reward of generating wind energy.
Yet another advantage of wind energy is it’s sustainability. Wind is caused by the heating of the atmosphere by the sun, the rotation of the Earth on it’s axis, and Earth’s surface irregularities. Therefore, wind is considered to be a form of solar energy, meaning the only requirement to continuously generate power from wind, is the Earth to turn and the sun to …show more content…
The Western Lake Erie area is right below the migration path for many types of birds and bats. Some environmentalists fear that the development of wind turbines on this land will greatly reduce the bird and bat population in the area, due to them flying into the rotor blades. However, the reality of this issue is that the continuous modern advancement of wind power equipment makes it significantly less harmful to birds and bats than the energy sources it would be replacing, as well as tall buildings, radio towers, and other human-made objects. Wind power is the only energy source without population-level wildlife impacts such as climate change-related habitat loss.
Another environmental argument related to the development of wind power is the belief of the public that old, obsolete or broken turbines are simply left abandoned on the land they were built on, taking up space that could potentially be put to other use. However, this doesn’t make sense economically. Wind power experts can prove that in the past, old turbines have always been repaired or replaced. Wind power equipment has a very high salvage value, and the site they are placed on would always be available for energy