Wind energy advocates point to economic benefit

People have been using the energy of the wind for thousands of years. The oldest windmills on record, probably used for grinding grain, date back to 1000 B.C., says Tom Gray, the deputy executive director of the American Wind Energy Association, an industry group based in Washington, D.C.

Gray, who lives in Norwich, Vt., says wind also was being used to power sailing ships around the time of Christ.

The Netherlands is famous for using wind power to pump water. And farmers in the western United States used windmills in the mid-19th century for the same purpose.

“The windmill was certainly one of the great factors in settling the Great Plains and the West,” Gray said.

Wind fell somewhat out of favor as cheaper sources of power, mainly fossil fuels, became available. But now it’s making a comeback. Gray says it’s 80 percent cheaper now to produce than it was just 20 years ago.

How cheap?

As low as 4 cents per kilowatt hour, says AWEA – a price that is competitive with many conventional energy sources.

Proponents of wind power point out that wind also helps reduce consumers’ dependence on fossil fuels, which are subject to rapid price fluctuations and supply problems. Then there are the environmental benefits, such as reducing pollution, associated with the use of wind.

Some drawbacks: The rotating blades can kill birds, and some people don’t like the look of the turbines. Gray says the advantages of wind far outweigh those concerns.

“There are all these choices to be made among energy systems, and this is one that doesn’t emit anything in the atmosphere,” he said. “It has the potential to generate quite a bit of electric power, to keep dollars in-state, to provide money to landowners. People just have to decide what the pluses and minuses are and add them up.”