The Greenest Wind Utility in the World? You Decide.

Foreign Oil

Highland New Wind Development says on the company website that utilities such as theirs will end our dependence on foreign oil.

That would certainly be wonderful, if it were anywhere close to the truth.

Yes, wind is a renewable source of electricity. But electricity accounts for a tiny fraction of our oil use.

According to the US Department of Energy (DOE), oil was used to produce 2% of the electricity consumed in the entire United States in 2007. For more information on electricity production, check out this instructive DOE website:
"http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/kids/energy.cfm?page=electricity_in_the_united_states-basics"

Wind power will not staunch the demand for foreign oil, period. A real reduction in the demand for foreign oil will only be achieved when per capita consumption of oil is reduced. And that will only happen when we stop requiring so much gasoline and other petroleum-based fuels. For a complete breakdown on how we use oil in this country, and where it comes from, check out another very informative DOE website:
"http://tonto.eia.doe.go/kids/energy.cfm?page=oil_home-basics"

Fossil Fuels

Highland New Wind says, in a power-point presentation on their project, that wind power "eliminates the need to burn fossil fuels." That might, eventually, be true. But it is going to take an awful lot of turbines to do it.

According to the DOE, in 2007 coal was responsible for generating 2,016,456 gigawatts of electricity in the US.

Highland New Wind's 19 turbines will produce 39 megawatts, or 2 megawatts each. Two megawatts X 24 hours X 365 days X 30% capacity factor = 5256 megawatt hours. A 30% capacity factor is considered a best-case scenario in the industry.

Dividing 5256 megawatts into the total gigawatts generated by coal, and close to 400,000 wind turbines identical to Highland New Wind's would be required to replace coal we were using at 2007 levels.

But, remember, coal accounts for only about half of electricity production. Petroleum liquids (49,505,000 megawatts), petroleum coke (16,234,000 megawatts), natural gas (896,590,000 megawatts), and other gases (13,453,000 megawatts) accounted for a total of 975,782,000 megawatts used back in 2007. To replace the energy produced from these fuels would require close to an additional 200,000 turbines.

In these calculations I am not replacing the 21% of electricity generated from nuclear power in 2007. Even so, removing fossil fuels from the equation mandates the need for close to 600,000 400-foot-tall, 285-foot-wide wind turbines. And that's if we returned to 2007 electricity usage levels, and if every turbine produced 2 megawatts at a 30% capacity rate.

Perhaps the prospect of giant wind turbines filling most of the scenic landscape in the nation will ultimately be the best motivation for us to take seriously the need to reduce our demand for electricity. I don't know about you, but such a vision certainly is a motivator for me.

Land Use

Highland New Wind Development says on their website that their industrial wind utility will be "the least intrusive land use ever" in the Highland County region. The wildlife might not agree.

Nighttime radar studies of birds and bats flying over the turbine sites led the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries to conclude that the project could lead to the highest mortality of birds and bats among wind projects in the east. Due to the presence of endangered bat species, as well as golden and bald eagles, both the state wildlife agency and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recommended that Highland New Wind prepare a Habitat Conservation Plan and obtain an Incidental Take Permit as provided by the Endangered Species Act. Highland New Wind has not done so. (http://www.vawind.org/#greenest)

Click below to read Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries reports regarding avian risk.

Homes Served

Highland New Wind has made the oft-repeated claim that their wind utility will support 20,000 homes. According to the "Environmental Impacts of Wind-Energy Projects" written by the Committee on Environmental Impacts of Wind Energy Projects, National Research Council, this is a misleading metric. The way it's used by the industry assumes that all the
electricity generated would go only to residential customers and that the
important issue is average annual consumption instead of peak demand.

A more realistic analysis would be based on per capita use of electricity (accounting for the rest of the infrastructure), and accounting for the intermittent nature of wind power (wind does not always blow at all, much less at the same constant rate). Such an analysis would take into account the inverse relationship between Appalachian wind generation and peak demand. The demand for electricity is greatest in the summer, when the wind blows the very least.

In the peak demand month of August, HNWD could be expected to support fewer than 1000 households. It would support zero households on the many summer days when the wind simply does not blow.

For more information read Chapter 2 of the National Research Council Report.

Deforestation

Highland New Wind Development says on the company website that their industrial utility will require "zero deforestation."

Satellite imagery of Red Oak Knob, the proposed location of 10 wind turbines. This site is featured on Highland New Wind Development's website in a prominent photo. It is correctly described as a "generation's old cowpasture bald."

Satellite imagery of Tamarack Ridge, which is 1.3 miles from Camp Allegheny Battlefield and is the proposed location of nine additional wind turbines. This location can be seen just under the clouds, in the top left corner of the picture of Red Oak Knob. The developer sent me two more photos of the Ridge, which I would gladly post; however, they came with this explicit warning: "Do not copy, email, forward, print, publish, reproduce, save, share with, use, or distribute either image (to anyone)."