Quick Points About Utility Scale Wind Power

• No power plant has been shut down or decommissioned as a result of wind power installations
  
• It takes more energy to manufacture, install and maintain a wind turbine than it will produce in its lifetime.
  
• Denmark, considered a world leader in Wind Power technology recently took 81 wind turbines at their flagship sight offline. The nacelles have been removed from these turbines and they will be out of service for at least six months while repairs are made.
  
• Wind turbines create industrial noise that does not fit in with the rural soundscape. Developers claim that they are not paricularly loud compared to some of the activities that take place in rural areas but most of the loud sounds are temporary (e.g. a tractor) and can be stopped if they cause a disturbance. You can't compare the sound that the frogs make on a spring evening to the thwump-thwump of wind turbines.
  
• Except, perhaps, for properties that have income from a wind turbine installation, property values in the towns where wind turbine facilities exists falls dramatically. Development of residential sites is also curtailed after wind power facilities are erected.
  
• Most of the people used in construction of wind power facilities are imported. Few if any permanent local jobs are created by the installation of wind power facilities.
  
• Power plants must be kept in spinning reserve and ready to act as a backup to wind power. Traditional coal and oil fired power plants use almost as much fuel in spinning reserve as they do when generating electricity. This is because steam pressure and temperature must be kept high enough to meet an immediate demand when wind generated electricity drops.
  
• A type of plant called the combined cycle plant is far more efficient and cleaner than traditional fossil fueled power plants but can't respond as quickly to the changes in demand that are caused as wind power plants come up and down. As a result, in order to back up wind power plants, less efficient coal and oil fired power plants will need to be built.
  
• Wind power is not an alternative energy source. Alternative means that it can be used instead of, not as well as. For example, you can take the interstate to reach a destination or you can take the alternative - scenic 2 lane roads. Both routes will get you to the same destination and one can replace the other.
With wind power, traditional power plants are still needed and they must be kept burning.