Alternative Energy Solutions

Are there any disadvantages to choosing wind power for our home as offered by our electric company?

Good grief…the answers you have recieved thus far!

My husband works on the commercial wind turbines. Our power company also offers purchasing of the wind power, at an extra $4 per month charge. Something I find rather humorous, since my husband is actually employed to work on the wind turbines.

You will of course still have power if the wind is not blowing, or the wind farm is down for some sort of repair. You electric company will continue to provide you power, it will just come from another source. To think that the power company would leave you without power is just plain silly.

The modern commercial wind turbines DO NOT KILL BIRDS, as some people would have you believe. To put it simply, the blades are larger than they use to be (and more efficient) and spin at a much slower rate. The birds are well able to judge the speed of the wind turbines. Wind farms actually provide amazing wildlife habitat. Instead of becoming covered with sprawling housing developments, the land remains in tact, and the wildlife QUICKLY adapts to the turbines. I am quiet an avid lover of wildlife. I would be most distressed to see birds of prey, or migrating geese and swans killed by the turbines. This simply doe NOT happen.

If you are able to easily afford the extra money for the wind energy, then I would say go ahead. However, I would ask that your electric company provide an accounting of exactly how that money is being spent. If it is a stretch for your budget, or you are having financial problems, then forgo the extra money.

Supporting the wind turbines is wonderful. They provide wildlife habitat. They are a completely renewable recource, the very towers themselves, are highly recyclable when they have reached the end of their lifespan.

The wind turbines help suport people in rural areas with good paying jobs that are usually hard to come by. In turn this also helps support local businesses. Examples of that would be the local gentleman they employe at my husbands site to maintain the gravel roads, and to so snow removal. They paid him over $100K last year. The local fencing comapany they empoyed to put up strong gates to keep people off the landowners private land where the turbines sit (I forgot how much but it was expensive). The local radio rental company they are always renting radios from when crews come in for different projects. Usually $300 a month to the radio rental company.

The list goes on and on. Supporting the green energy of the wind turbines really is a win-win situation.

~Garnet
Homesteading/Farming over 20 years

Sway Floating Wind Turbine Prototype

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